'     LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF 
CALIFORNIA 

.       SAN  DIEGO       i 


WHAT    HAVE     YOU     (JOT    THERE?'    ASKED    THE     MAX     IN    THE    ROAD* 

—Page  6 


THE  TRUE  STORIES 

OF 

CELEBRATED  CRIMES 


UNCLE  SAM 
DETECTIVE 


BY 

WILLIAM  ATHERTON  DUPUY 

AUTHOR  OF 
"  UNCLE   SAM'S    MODERN   MIRACLES,"   ETC. 


McKINLAY  STONE  &  MACKENZIE 
NEW  YORK 


Copyright,  1916,  by 
FREDERICK  A.  STOIIS  COMPANT 


All  rights  reserved 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


CONTENTS 

INTRODUCTION       ........  ix 

I  THE  CONSCIENCE  OF  THE  CUMBERLANDS  1 

II  THE  BANK  WRECKER       ,.,     ...      .      .      .  24 

III  A  FIASCO  IN  FIREARMS      .      ,.>...  48 

IV  THE  SUGAR  SAMPLES        .      .     ,..     .      .  71 

V  THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  SLEUTH      ...  93 

VI  "ROPING"  THE  SMUGGLERS  OF  JAMAICA  .  116 

VII  A  BANK  CASE  FROM  THE  OUTSIDE      .      .  136 

VIII  BEHIND  CUSTOMS  SCREENS     ......  154 

IX  WITH  THE  REVOLUTION  MAKERS  .     ...     :.  171 

X  THE  ELUSIVE  FUGITIVE    ,.-,     ,.,     ^     ,.;     ,.  192 

XI  THE  BANK  BOOKKEEPER 214 

XII  PUTTING  UP  THE  MASTER  BLUFF  .      .      .  231 


INTRODUCTION 

May  I  ask  you  to  close  your  eyes  for  a  mo 
ment  and  conjure  up  the  picture  that  is  filed 
away  in  your  mind  under  the  heading,  "de 
tective"? 

There!  You  have  him.  He  is  a  large  man 
of  middle  age.  His  tendency  is  toward  stout 
ness.  The  first  detail  of  him  that  stands  out 
in  your  conception  is  his  shoes.  In  stories  you 
have  read,  plays  you  have  seen,  the  detective 
has  had  square-toed  shoes.  You  noticed  his 
shoes  that  time  when  the  house  was  robbed  and 
a  plain  clothes  man  came  out  and  snooped 
about. 

These  shoes  are  a  survival  of  the  days  when 
the  detective  walked  his  beat ;  for  the  sleuth,  of 
course,  is  a  graduate  policeman.  He  must 
have  been  a  large  man  to  have  been  a  police 
man,  and  he  must  have  attained  some  age  to 
have  passed  through  the  grades.  Such  men  as 
he  always  put  on  flesh  with  age.  Your  man 


x  INTRODUCTION 

perspires  freely,  breathes  heavily,  moves  witK 
deliberation.  The  police  detective  can  be  rec 
ognized  a  block  away. 

Or,  perhaps,  you  have  the  best  accredited 
fiction  idea  of  the  unraveler  of  mysteries. 
This  creation  is  a  tall,  cadaverous  individual, 
who  sits  on  the  small  of  his  back  in  a  morris- 
chair  and  smokes  a  pipe.  From  a  leaf  torn 
from  last  year's  almanac,  in  an  East  Side  gar 
ret,  he  draws  the  conclusion  that  the  perpe 
trator  of  a  Black  Hand  outrage  in  Xenia,  Ohio, 
is  a  pock-marked  Hungarian  now  floating  down 
the  Mississippi  on  a  scow;  he  radiographs  with 
the  aid  of  a  weird  instrument  at  his  elbow  and 
apprehends  the  fugitive. 

Of  these  two  conceptions  of  detectives  it  may 
be  said  that  the  first  is  quite  correct:  that  the 
graduate  policeman  is  abroad  in  the  land,  lum 
bering  along  on  the  trail  of  its  criminals  and 
occasionally  catching  one  of  them.  His  assign 
ment  to  this  task  is,  obviously,  a  bit  like 
thrusting  the  work  of  a  fox  upon  a  ponderous 
elephant.  The  police  departments,  however, 
are  practically  the  only  training  schools  for  de 
tectives  and  it  is  but  natural  that  they  should 
be  drawn  upon. 


INTRODUCTION  xi 

Of  the  second  conception  of  the  detective — 
the  man  of  science  and  deductions — it  may  be 
said  merely  that  he  does  not  exist  in  all  the 
world,  nor  could  exist.  There  is  one  case  in  a 
hundred  which  would  require  the  man  of  sci 
ence  in  its  solution  and  upon  which  he  might 
work  much  as  he  does  in  fiction.  In  the  ninety- 
nine  there  would  be  no  place  for  such  talents 
as  his. 

For  each  criminal  case  is  a  problem  sepa 
rate  unto  itself,  and  there  may  not  be  brought 
to  it  more  than  a  trained,  logical,  imaginative 
mind,  which  may  unfold  it  and  see  all  the  possi 
bilities.  There  is  but  the  occasional  call  upon 
science,  and  the  good  detective  knows  when  to 
consult  the  specialist. 

It  was  little  more  than  half  a  dozen  years  ago 
that  the  Federal  Department  of  Justice  set 
about  the  upbuilding  of  the  greatest  detective 
bureau  that  the  Government,  or  America  for 
that  matter,  has  ever  known.  As  the  Bureau  of 
Investigation  it  was  to  have  charge  of  all  the 
secret  work  of  the  Government  for  which  pro 
vision  was  not  made  elsewhere.  It  was  to 
wrestle  with  violations  of  neutrality,  with  those 
of  the  national  banking  laws,  with  anti-trust 


xii  INTRODUCTION 

cases,  bucket  shop  cases,  white  slave  cases;  it 
was  to  prosecute  those  who  impersonate  an 
officer  of  the  Government,  to  pursue  those  who 
flee  the  country  and  seek  to  evade  the  long  arm 
of  the  Federal  law.  Its  duties  were  vastly 
wider  than  those  of  any  other  of  the  Govern 
ment  detective  agencies. 

Department  of  Justice  cases  are  stupen 
dously  big  in  many  instances.  They  may 
affect  the  relations  that  exist  between  nations, 
they  may  mean  the  wrecking  of  hundred-mil 
lion-dollar  corporations,  the  stopping  of  prac 
tises  that  are  blights  upon  the  morality  and 
good  name  of  the  nation.  They  are  endless  in 
variety  and  stupendous  in  their  results. 

The  Department  of  Justice  asked  itself  what 
manner  of  man  should  be  called  upon  to  per 
form  this  important  work.  It  looked  the  tasks 
in  the  face  and  sought  to  determine  the  indi 
vidual  who  would  be  best  fitted  to  their  per 
formance.  When  it  had  come  to  a  conclusion 
it  built  a  staff  of  a  hundred  or  two  hundred 
(the  number  should  not  be  stated)  made  up  of 
men  of  the  material  specified. 

That  staff  ever  since  has  been  wrestling  with 
the  great  problems  that  confront  a  powerful 


INTRODUCTION  xiii 

nation  with  multitudinous  interests.  Its  ac 
complishments  have  satisfied  the  Department 
that  its  judgment  was  right  when  it  established 
a  peculiar  standard  for  the  men  whom  it  se 
lected  to  perform  these  delicate  and  difficult 
tasks. 

I  have  purposely  cultivated  these  men  in 
many  cities,  have  seen  them  at  work,  have  been 
given  special  privileges  in  my  efforts  to  get  a 
true  conception  of  them  and  their  methods. 
Scores  of  the  stars  that  have  been  developed 
in  the  service  have  told  me  their  best  stories, 
their  most  striking  experiences. 

In  the  end,  I  have  attempted  to  evolve  a 
character  who  is  typical  of  this  new  school  of 
detectives.  I  have  wanted  him  to  work  in  my 
stories  as  he  would  have  done  in  actual  life. 
I  have  wanted  him  to  be  true  in  every  detail 
to  those  young  men  who  to-day  are  actually 
performing  those  tasks  for  Uncle  Sam. 

So  has  Billy  Gard  come  into  being.  The 
cases  upon  which  he  goes  forth  have  actually 
been  ground  through  the  mill  of  which  he  is  a 
part.  Each  is  founded  on  facts  related  to  me 
by  these  special  agents  of  the  Department  of 
Justice.  Billy  Gard  is  not  an  individual  but 


xiv  INTRODUCTION 

a  type — a  new  detective  who  is  effectually  per 
forming  as  important  work  as  ever  came  to  the 
lot  of  men  of  his  kind. 

If  the  reader  wants  to  know  that  his  story 
pictures  correctly  the  situation  which  it  under 
takes,  I  wish  to  assure  him  that  I  have  taken 
infinite  care  that  Billy  Gard  should  work  out 
his  problems  by  the  methods  that  are  actually 
employed  and  that  the  Government  machine 
operates  in  just  this  way. 

WILLIAM  ATHERTON  Du  PUT. 

.Washington,  D.  C., 
March,  1916. 


UNCLE  SAM:  DETECTIVE 


THE   CONSCIENCE   OF   THE   CTJMBEELAND6 

ON  the  face  of  it  one  might  have  ques 
tioned  the  wisdom  of  selecting  for  a 
task  so  difficult  a  man  who  knew  abso 
lutely  nothing  about  it.  When  the  work  in  hand 
was  the  apprehension  of  a  band  of  violators  of 
the  law  who  had  for  years  defied  and  intimi 
dated  the  whole  countryside,  this  course  seemed 
even  more  unusual.  But  the  wonder  would 
have  still  further  multiplied  itself  if  the  casual 
observer  could  have  given  Billy  Gard  the  once 
over  as  he  sat  nervously  on  the  edge  of  the  cane 
seat  of  the  day  coach  as  the  accommodation 
train  pulled  into  the  hill  country. 

For  this  special  agent  of  the  Department  of 
Justice,  mind  you,  was  to  take  up  a  piece  of 
work  upon  which  local  constables  and  sheriffs, 

i 


2        UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

United  States  marshals  and  revenue  agents  had 
failed.  There  was  murder  at  one  end  of  the 
road  he  was  to  travel  and  the  gallows  at  the 
other.  And  Gard  was  a  nondescript  youngster 
who  looked  less  than  thirty,  neither  light  nor 
dark,  large  nor  small — inconspicuous,  easily  lost 
in  a  crowd.  The  careful  observer  might  have 
noticed  the  breadth  of  brow  and  the  wrinkles 
that  come  to  the  man  who  thinks,  or  the  tense 
ness  of  his  slim  form  that  indicated  physical 
fitness.  For  to  be  sure,  these  federal  sleuths  of 
the  new  school  are  mostly  college  men,  lawyers, 
expert  accountants,  as  was  Gard;  but  youngsters 
in  whom  is  to  be  found  the  love  of  a  bit  of  ad 
venture  and  the  steel  of  a  set  determination. 

And  now  this  slip  of  a  lad  was  going  back  into 
the  Cumberlands  where  the  whisky  still  whis 
pers  its  secret  to  the  mountaineer;  where  the 
revenue  agent  penetrates  at  his  peril  and  the 
Long  Tom  speaks  from  the  thickets ;  where  the 
clansman  sets  what  he  considers  his  rights 
above  the  law  of  the  land  and  stands  ready  to 
lay  his  life  or  that  of  any  who  oppose  him  on 
the  altar  he  has  built.  Gard  was  after  a  com 
munity  of  moonshiners  who  had  defied  all  local 
authority  and  thrown  down  the  gauntlet  to  the 


THE  CUMBERLANDS  3 

Federal  Government  itself.  He  came  alone  with 
a  little  wicker  grip. 

"I  am  looking  for  a  place  to  board,"  the  spe 
cial  agent  told  Todd,  the  livery  stable  man  at 
Wheeler,  the  mountain  town  at  which  he  had 
stopped  off.  "I  have  been  clerking  in  a  store 
in  Atlanta  and  got  pretty  well  run  down.  The 
doctor  said  I  ought  to  stay  in  the  mountains  for 
a  month  or  two." 

"How  much  can  you  pay?"  asked  Todd. 

"I  would  like  to  get  it  as  cheap  as  five  dol 
lars  a  week,"  said  Gard. 

' '  You  can  buy  a  farm  up  here  for  five  dollars 
a  week,"  said  Todd. 

"Well,  I  want  good  board  where  I  can  get 
lots  of  milk  to  drink  and  eggs  and  where  I  can 
tramp  around  and  shoot  squirrels.  Do  you 
know  such  a  place?" 

The  liveryman  was  accustomed  to  driving 
summer  boarders  out  to  the  few  places  where 
they  might  stay  in  the  Cumberlands.  He 
sketched  these  possibilities  and  told  of  the  lo 
cation  of  each.  Gard  already  had  the  map  of 
the  country  well  in  mind  and  selected  the  farm 
near  Sam  Lunsford's,  he  being  the  mountain 
eer  whom  the  agent  most  wanted  to  cultivate. 


4        UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

Todd  reviewed  the  situation  as  between  the 
mountaineers  and  the  Government  as  he  drove 
his  customer  out  to  the  Tenney  farm  where  he 
was  to  ask  to  be  put  up. 

"You  see,"  he  said,  "they  have  always  made 
moonshine  whisky  around  here  and  they  just 
won't  stop  for  nobody.  They  ain't  many  ideas 
gits  into  the  head  of  a  man  who  lives  in  the 
mountains,  and  when  one  gits  set  there,  you 
can't  get  it  out.  They  think  they  got  a  right 
to  make  whisky  and  whisky  they  are  goin'  to 
make  or  bust. 

"Then  along  comes  Tom  Reynolds  and  Sam 
Lunsford  and  me  and  some  more  of  us.  We 
see  that  it  ain't  right  to  fight  the  Government 
and  that  whisky  is  no  good  anyhow,  so  when 
ever  we  find  out  where  there  is  a  still,  we  tell 
the  revenue  agents  about  it.  Well,  we  git 
warnin's  that  we  better  not  do  it  no  more,  but 
them  fellers  can't  skeer  us  so  we  go  right 
ahead. 

1  *  Then  one  night,  Tom  Eeynolds  starts  home 
from  Wheeler  late  in  the  evenin'  but  he  don't 
never  get  there.  Next  mornin'  we  find  his 
wagon  standin'  off  to  the  side  of  the  road  and 


THE  CUMBERLANDS  5 

Tom  is  down  in  front  of  the  seat  dead  with  a 
load  of  buckshot  in  his  head. 

"Sam  Lunsford  has  still  got  the  idea,  though, 
that  the  boys  ought  not  to  make  moonshine  so 
he  goes  right  ahead  reportin'  every  still  he 
finds.  So  things  goes  on  for  two  months. 
Then,  one  night,  Sam  was  up  late  with  one  of 
his  babies  that  had  the  colic.  He  was  settin' 
before  the  fire  a  rockin'  the  baby  when,  bang! 
somebody  shoots  him  through  the  winder. 

"Well,  that  shot  didn't  quite  get  Sam.  Did 
you  ever  try  to  shoot  the  head  off  of  a  chicken 
as  it  walked  across  the  yard?  Its  head  moves 
for'd  and  back  and  it  is  mighty  hard  to  hit  it. 
That's  the  way  with  Sam  rockin'  the  baby, 
I  reckon.  Anyway,  the  buckshot  just  got  Sam 
in  the  back  part  of  his  head  and  didn't  kill  him. 
Next  day  his  old  woman  picked  the  buckshot 
out  with  a  pocket  knife  because  the  doctor  was 
afraid  to  go.  Now  Sam  is  as  well  as  he  ever 
was  and  he  ain't  changed  his  mind  about  the 
stills.  Him  and  me  reported  two  of  them  last 
week. ' ' 

This  story  was  about  in  accordance  with  the 
information  Gard  received  from  Washington. 


6        UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

The  revenue  agents  were  too  well  known  to 
work  effectually  in  the  Cumberlands  any  more,, 
so  the  Department  of  Justice  had  taken  ovei 
the  case.  The  murderers  and  those  who  at 
tempted  murder  should  be  apprehended. 

As  the  wagon  wound  along  the  country  road 
Todd  called  the  special  agent's  attention  to 
the  report  of  a  rifle  from  a  hillside  to  the  right. 
Soon  another  gun  was  discharged  further 
ahead  and  a  third  still  further  on.  This,  the 
liveryman  said,  was  a  system  of  signals  that 
told  of  their  presence. 

A  little  farther  along  the  road  wound  into  a 
hollow  down  which  flowed  a  brook.  Out  of  the 
brush  in  this  hollow  stepped  the  form  of  a 
mountaineer  with  a  rifle  across  his  arm.  Todd 
drew  up  his  team. 

"What  have  you  got  there?"  asked  the  man 
in  the  road. 

"Summer  boarder,"  said  Todd. 

"Where's  he  goin'?"  was  the  query. 

"To  Tenney's,"  answered  Todd. 

The  mountaineer  walked  around  to  the  back 
of  the  wagon  where  (lard's  little  wicker  grip 
was  carried.  Without  a  word  he  opened  the 
grip  and  carefully  examined  everything  in  it. 


THE  CUMBERLANDS  7 

Seemingly  satisfied,  he  waved  permission  for 
them  to  proceed. 

"Young  feller,"  he  said  to  Gard  in  parting, 
"you  are  in  durn  bad  company.  You  can't 
never  tell  whether  you  will  git  back  when  you 
start  out  with  that  skunk." 

To  which  Todd  grinned  as  he  drove  on. 

"They  ain't  never  made  the  bullet  that'll 
kill  me,"  he  said. 

It  was  three  days  later  that  Billy  Gard, 
squirrel  rifle  on  his  shoulder,  walked  into  the 
clearing  about  the  house  of  Sam  Lunsford,  the 
man  who  had  survived  the  charge  of  buckshot 
in  the  back  of  his  head.  The  Lunsford  house 
consisted  of  one  log  room  with  a  lean-to  addi 
tion  at  the  back.  There  was  a  clearing  of  some 
thirty  acres  where  grew  a  most  indifferent 
sprinkling  of  corn  and  cotton.  There  was  a 
crib  for  the  corn,  a  ramshackle  wagon,  a  flea- 
bitten  gray  horse  and  some  hogs  running  wild 
in  the  woods.  Such  was  the  Lunsford  estate, 
presided  over  by  this  huge  mountaineer  and  to 
which  his  eleven  children  were  heir.  Seldom 
did  an  echo  of  the  outside  world  reach  this 
home  in  the  woods.  Not  a  member  of  the  fam 
ily  was  able  to  read.  Every  Sunday  Sam  Luns- 


8        UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

ford  drove  the  flea-bitten  gray  or  walked  seven 
miles  to  a  little  mountain  church  where  was 
preached  a  gospel  of  hellfire  and  brimstone. 
He  was  hated  by  his  neighbors  and  constantly 
in  the  shadow  of  death.  Yet  he  went  unswerv 
ingly  on  the  way  of  his  duty  in  accordance  with 
his  lights. 

Gard  already  had  the  measure  of  his  man. 
No  sooner  had  he  presented  himself  than  he 
put  his  business  up  to  the  mountaineer,  "cold 
turkey,"  as  the  agents  say  when  they  lay  all 
the  cards  on  the  table.  Would  Lunsford  help 
the  government  in  getting  the  facts  that  would 
bring  the  murderers  of  Tom  Eeynolds  and  the 
men  who  shot  him  to  justice?  Lunsford  would 
do  all  he  could. 

"Whom  do  you  suspect?"  the  agent  asked. 

"There  are  so  many  of  them  agin  me,"  said 
Lunsford,  "that  it  is  hard  to  tell  which  ones 
done  it." 

"Will  you  show  me  just  how  you  were  sitting 
when  you  were  shot!" 

The  mountaineer  placed  the  rocking  chair 
in  front  of  the  fire  directly  between  a  hole  in 
the  window  and  a  spot  in  the  opposite  wall 
where  the  buckshot  had  lodged  themselves,  pep- 


THE  CUMBERLANDS  9 

pering  up  a  surface  two  feet  square.  Thus 
was  it  easy  to  trace  the  flight  of  the  shot 
through  the  room.  The  special  agent  examined 
both  window  pane  and  wall. 

"  Could  you  tell  where  the  man  stood  when 
he  fired?"  he  asked. 

"Yes,"  said  Lunsford.  "I  looked  for  tracks 
next  day.  Let  me  show  you." 

He  led  the  way  into  the  yard  and  there  pointed 
out  a  stout  peg  which  had  been  driven  into  the 
ground  not  a  dozen  feet  from  the  window. 

"The  tracks  came  up  to  there  and  stopped," 
he  said. 

"Did  you  measure  the  tracks?"  asked  the 
special  agent. 

The  mountaineer  had  done  so  and  had  cut  a 
stick  just  the  length  of  the  track.  This  stick 
had  been  carefully  preserved. 

"Did  you  find  any  of  the  gun  wadding?" 
asked  the  agent. 

Even  this  precaution  was  taken  by  Lunsford. 
These  men  of  the  mountains  mostly  load  their 
own  shells  and  the  wads  in  this  case  had  been 
made  by  cutting  pieces  out  of  a  pasteboard  box. 
So  there  were  a  number  of  clues  at  hand. 

Special  Agent  Billy  Gard  stood  on  the  spot 


10      UNCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

from  which  the  shot  had  been  fired.  From  this 
point  to  that  at  which  the  buckshot  had  entered 
the  wall  of  the  cabin  was  not  more  than  thirty 
feet. 

"An  ordinary  shotgun  at  thirty  feet,"  he 
reflected,  remembering  his  squirrel  hunting 
days,  "shoots  almost  like  a  rifle.  The  shot  at 
that  distance  are  all  in  a  bunch  not  bigger  than 
your  fist.  Yet  the  shot  in  the  cabin  wall  were 
scattered.  The  man  with  the  gun  must  have 
been  further  away." 

Gard  stated  this  view  of  the  matter  to  the 
mountaineer,  but  that  individual  showed  how  it 
would  have  been  impossible  for  the  shot  to  have 
been  fired  from  a  greater  distance  because  there 
was  a  depression  that  would  have  placed  the 
man  with  the  gun  too  low  down  to  see  in  at  the 
window.  The  shot  could  have  been  fired  from 
but  the  one  spot.  The  window  pane  through 
which  the  shot  had  passed  was  about  half  way 
between  the  peg  and  the  wall  where  the  charge 
had  lodged.  The  hole  in  the  window  was  not 
more  than  half  as  large  as  the  wall  surface  pep~ 
pered  by  the  shot.  This  scatter  of  shot  at  such 
short  range  was  significant. 

' '  The  shot  must  have  been  fired  from  a  sawe<£. 


THE  CUMBERLANDS  11 

off  shotgun,"  said  the  special  agent.  "Only  a 
short-barreled  gun  would  have  scattered  so 
much  at  this  short  range. ' ' 

He  meditated  a  moment  and  then  asked: 

' '  Who  is  there  around  here  who  has  a  sa wed- 
off  shotgun?" 

"Ty  Jones  has  got  one,"  said  Sam. 

''Is  he  friendly  to  you?"  asked  Gard. 

"No,"  was  the  reply.  "The  revenue  agents 
chopped  up  his  still  after  I  reported  it." 

"Did  he  ever  threaten  you?" 

'  *  He  said  onst  at  the  crossroads  that  he  knew 
a  bear  with  a  sore  head  that  would  soon  be 
feelin'  almighty  comf 'table  'cause  it  was  goin' 
to  lose  that  head." 

Here  was  a  probable  case  of  Ty  Jones  being 
the  man  guilty  of  the  attempt  on  the  life  of 
Lunsford.  There  was  a  possibility,  as  Gard 
saw  it,  of  getting  this  suspicion  confirmed. 
Despite  the  animosity  that  existed  between  the 
heads  of  the  families,  the  Jones  youngsters  and 
the  Lunsford  youngsters  were  playmates;  so 
does  the  sociability  of  youth  break  down  the 
bars  set  up  by  maturity.  Lunsford  had  a  boy 
of  ten  who  was  wise  with  the  cunning  of  the 
woods  and  trustworthy  in  lending  a  hand  in  the 


12      UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

feuds  to  which  he  was  born.  This  boy,  in  play 
ing  about  the  Jones  household,  was  instructed 
to  pick  up  every  piece  of  pasteboard  box  he 
could  find  and  bring  those  pieces  home.  Like 
wise  was  he  to  measure  the  shoes  of  the  Jones 
household,  when  an  opportunity  offered,  and  tie 
knots  in  a  string  to  indicate  their  length. 

It  was  a  week  before  this  task  had  been  com 
pleted  by  the  boy,  but  the  results  indicated  that 
the  foot  of  a  certain  pair  of  shoes  in  the  Jones 
home  was  like  unto  that  of  the  man  of  the  sawed- 
off  shotgun.  Scraps  of  cut-up  shoe  boxes  had 
been  found,  white  on  one  side  and  brown  on  the 
other,  and  from  these  had  evidently  been  made 
iwads  for  reloading  shells. 

Thus  far  was  Special  Agent  Gard  able  to 
carry  his  case  toward  a  solution.  There  were 
twenty  men  in  the  neighborhood  who  might  have 
been  implicated  with  Jones,  if  he  were  guilty,  in 
this  attempt  and  in  the  killing  of  Tom  Reynolds. 
There  were  twenty  and  more  makers  of  moon 
shine  who  had  been  reported  or  stood  in  danger. 
It  was  hard  to  determine  which  of  the  twenty 
were  actually  guilty.  The  suspicions  against 
'Jones  were  not  evidence.  After  a  month  on 
the  case  Gard  decided  that  a  complete  solution 


THE  CUMBERLANDS  13 

of  the  mystery  was  possible  only  through  work 
ing  in  with  the  moonshiners  themselves  and 
gaining  their  confidence. 

So  the  summer  boarder  left  the  Tenney  farm, 
stating  that  his  health  was  greatly  improved 
but  that  he  would  come  back  two  months  later 
for  another  stay. 

A  week  after  this  there  was  nailed  up  at  every 
post  office  and  court  house  within  a  hundred 
miles  of  Wheeler  a  notice  of  reward  for  an 
escaped  convict.  A  short,  stout,  curly-headed 
young  outlaw  had  broken  jail  in  South  Caro 
lina  and  when  last  heard  of  was  bearing  in  this 
direction.  Fifty  dollars  reward  would  be  paid 
for  his  capture.  His  picture  appeared  with 
the  notice. 

After  still  another  week  the  Jones  children 
were  playing  in  the  woods  back  of  their  house 
when  a  strange  man  called  them  from  a  dis 
tance.  The  youngsters  approached  cautiously. 
The  man  was  no  less  cautious.  He  was  a  short 
curly-headed  young  fellow  with  a  stubby  beard, 
with  his  clothing  in  shreds  and  very  dirty.  He 
looked  as  though  he  had  slept  in  the  woods  for  a 
month.  There  were  stripes  across  an  under 
garment  that  showed  through  his  open  shirt. 


14     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

"Do  you  suppose,"  said  the  man  of  rags, 
"that  your  maw  could  stake  a  hungry  man  to 
six  or  seven  dollars'  worth  of  bread  and  bacon 
and  wait  for  remuneration  until  the  executors 
of  his  estate  act?" 

"Yuh  don't  mean  yuh  want  somethin'  to  eat, 
do  yuh?"  said  young  Lem  Jones. 

"Son,"  said  the  curly-headed  one,  "your 
instincts  are  clairvoyant.  You  have  demon 
strated  a  hypothesis,  confirmed  a  rumor,  hit 
upon  a  great  truth,  sleuthed  a  primal  fact  to  its 
lair.  The  plain  truth  is  that  I  haven't  had  any 
thing  to  eat  in  so  long  that  I  have  forgotten  my 
last  meal.  I  am  the  hungriest  man  in  the 
world.  I  could  eat  tacks  with  a  spoon." 

"Come  on,"  said  Lem,  a  bit  dizzy  with  the 
unusual  words,  but  anxious  to  please. 

He  led  the  way  to  the  house  where  Mrs.  Jones 
met  the  hungry  man  at  the  door. 

"Madam,"  said  the  hungry  one  most  cour 
teously,  "I  am  needing  a  little  something  to 
eat.  I  have  been  lost  in  the  woods  and  without 
food." 

"What  are  they  after  you  for,  young  feller?" 
inquired  Mrs.  Jones  incisively,  she  who  had 
spent  a  life  in  those  mountains  where  the  sym- 


THE  CUMBERLANDS  15 

pathy  was  all  with  the  man  whose  hand  was 
turned  against  authority  and  where  many  fugi 
tives  from  the  law  had  found  refuge. 

"Have  you  found  me  out  so  soon!"  grinned 
the  fugitive.  "Well,  if  I  must  tell  I  will  say 
that  I  just  knocked  a  hole  in  a  jail  down  South 
Carolina  way,  cracked  the  heads  of  a  couple  of 
armed  guards  together,  robbed  the  city  marshal 
of  his  horse,  outran  the  sheriff's  posse,  swam 
the  Elb  river  where  ford  there  was  none,  and 
lived  on  a  diet  of  blackberries  for  seven  days. 
Back  of  that  there  was  the  little  matter  of  crack 
ing  a  safe.  Other  than  that  I  assure  you  my 
conduct  has  been  of  the  best." 

So  engaging  was  the  manner  of  this  young 
man  of  the  rags  from  the  great  world  beyond 
the  mountains  that  Mrs.  Jones  immediately 
liked  him.  He  was  a  perfect  cataract  of  words 
and  talked  incessantly.  She  was  not  able  to 
understand  half  he  said  but  was  pleased  with  all 
of  it.  He  ran  on  glibly  but  always  stopped 
short  of  being  smart  in  the  sense  that  would  call 
forth  dislike.  All  the  time  he  was  eating  corn 
bread  and  bacon  with  the  relish  of  one  who  has 
long  omitted  the  formality  of  dining. 

Such  was  the  introduction  of  Special  Agent  A. 


16      UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

Spaulding  Bowling  into  the  Cumberlands,  he 
who  played  the  cadet  in  white  slave  cases,  the 
wild  young  man  about  town  in  the  bucket  shop 
investigations,  and  made  love  to  a  bank 
cashier's  daughter  to  learn  where  the  loot  was 
hidden.  For  all  these  situations  Bowling  had 
a  stream  of  talk  that  never  failed  to  amuse  and 
disarm.  Billy  Gard  had  asked  the  department 
for  his  help  on  the  moonshiners'  case  and  Bowl 
ing  had  fallen  into  the  plan  with  all  the  enthusi 
asm  of  adventurous  youth. 

The  features  of  the  jail  breaker  for  whom  the 
reward  was  offered  were  those  of  Bowling.  So 
had  preparation  been  made  for  his  coming. 
Gard  had  laid  his  plans  with  an  understanding 
of  the  habits  of  the  mountaineer  to  hide*  the 
fugitive.  He  had  figured  that  such  a  fugitive 
might  get  into  the  confidence  of  those  iron  men 
of  few  words  and  filch  from  them  their  secrets. 
With  the  right  culprits  behind  the  bars  the  back 
bone  of  this  defiance  of  the  law  might  be  broken. 

Bowling's  stream  of  talk  won  the  friendship 
of  Ty  Jones  and  his  sons  as  it  had  won  his  wife. 
The  fugitive  was  tucked  away  in  the  hills  and 
fed  by  the  mountaineers.  He  came  to  know  the 
intimates  of  the  Jones  family  and  his  stream  of 


ir 

talk  entertained  them  for  days  and  weeks.  He 
hibernated  with  others  of  his  kind  for  he  found 
the  hills  full  of  men  in  hiding.  He  became  a 
visitor  at  many  a  cabin  and  eventually  struck 
ihe  rock  that  responded  to  his  confidence. 

A  young  mountaineer  named  Ed  Hill  main 
tained  an  active  still  high  up  in  the  mountains 
— a  virgin  still  that  had  never  known  the  dese 
cration  of  a  raid.  Hill  was  high  spirited  and 
companionable,  unlike  most  of  his  neighbors. 
His  was  the  soul  of  a  poet,  a  lover  of  the  wilds,  a 
patriot  of  the  mountains.  The  flame  of  adven 
ture,  the  love  of  danger,  the  belief  in  the  indi 
vidual  rights  of  the  mountaineer,  made  him  a 
moving  spirit  among  the  men  who  battled  the 
government. 

Ed  Hill  told  the  fugitive  the  whole  story  of 
the  killing  of  Tom  Eeynolds  and  the  shooting  of 
Sam  Lunsford.  He  told  of  the  determination 
to  rid  the  mountains  of  Todd,  the  livery  stable 
man,  and  to  preserve  for  the  men  of  the  Cum- 
berlands  the  right  to  do  as  they  chose  in  their 
own  retreats. 

It  seemed  that  of  all  the  men  of  the  moun 
tains  who  made  moonshine  whisky,  there  were 
but  four  who  were  willing  to  go  the  limit  of 


18     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

spilling  the  blood  of  their  fellows  in  resisting  the 
law.  Hill  was  one  of  these  and  saw  his  acts  as 
those  of  the  man  who  fights  for  his  country. 
Ty  Jones,  contrary  to  the  suspicions  of  Sam 
Lunsford,  always  advised  against  violence. 
But  Jones  had  a  boy  of  eighteen,  a  heavy-faced, 
dull-witted  lad,  who  was  possessed  of  the  desire 
to  kill,  to  be  known  among  his  fellows  as  a  bad 
man.  This  younger  Jones  it  was  who  had 
aimed  his  father's  sawed-off  shotgun  at  Sam 
Lunsford  as  that  hulking  figure  of  a  man  swayed 
back  and  forth  as  he  rocked  the  baby  that  suf 
fered  from  colic.  The  patriot  Hill,  Will  Jones 
the  born  murderer,  a  father  and  son  by  the  name 
of  Hinton,  had  been  the  murderers  of  Tom 
Reynolds.  There  were  no  others  who  would 
go  so  far  as  to  kill  to  avenge  their  fancied 
grievances. 

The  summer  was  dragging  to  its  close  as  the 
conversational  special  agent  got  his  information 
together.  The  yellow  was  stealing  into  the 
trees  of  the  hillsides  when  Billy  Gard,  he  whose 
health  had  been  broken  behind  the  ribbon  coun 
ter,  came  back  to  Tenney's  for  another  few 
weeks  in  the  open.  He  wandered  into  the  woods 
and  met  the  fugitive  from  the  South  Carolina 


THE  CUMBERLANDS  19 

jail.  The  jail  bird  and  the  ribbon  counter  clerk 
talked  long  together  and  when  they  parted  the 
plans  were  laid  for  the  nipping  off  of  the  men 
who  would  murder  for  their  stills. 

It  was  a  week  later  and  the  quiet  of  after- 
midnight  rested  upon  the  little  mountain  town 
of  Wheeler.  In  such  towns  there  are  no  all- 
night  industries,  no  street  cars  to  drone  through 
deserted  thoroughfares,  not  even  an  arc  light  to 
sputter  at  street  crossings.  There  is  but  the 
occasional  stamping  of  a  horse  in  its  stall  or  the 
baying  of  a  watch  dog  in  answer  to  the  howl  of 
a  wolf  on  the  hillside.  But  murder  was  planned 
to  take  place  that  night  in  Wheeler  and  A. 
Spaulding  Dowling  knew  all  about  it. 

As  the  town  slept  four  stealthy  figures  crept 
down  the  trail  that  cuts  across  the  point  of  the 
Hunchback.  Soft-footedly,  rifles  in  hand,  they 
passed  down  a  side  street  beneath  the  dense 
shade  of  giant  sycamores.  It  was  but  three 
blocks  from  the  woods  to  Main  street.  Beach 
ing  this  artery  of  the  town,  two  of  the  men 
crouched  in  the  shadow  while  two  others  crossed 
the  street  and  went  a  block  further,  turning  to 
the  left.  Each  group  then  shifted  itself  a 
hundred  feet  to  the  left  and  paused  again. 


20      UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

So  stationed  the  four  men  found  themselves 
in  front  and  back  of  Todd's  livery  stable.  The 
building  itself  sat  back  a  little  from  the  street. 
On  the  ground  floor  were  the  stalls  for  the 
horses  and  the  sheds  where  the  wagons  were 
stored.  Overhead  were  bins  of  corn  and  hay 
and  a  living  room  where  Todd  slept  that  he 
might  always  be  near  his  teams.  About  the 
whole  was  a  roomy  barnyard  enclosed  by  a  high 
board  fence.  The  gates  to  the  outer  enclosure 
were  locked,  but  once  past  this  wall  a  man  would 
have  the  run  of  the  whole  place. 

The  mountaineers,  two  in  front  and  two  in 
the  rear  of  the  building,  swung  themselves  to 
the  top  of  the  fence  and  leaped  to  the  ground 
inside.  Eifles  at  hip  they  started  to  close  in  on 
the  building.  Each  party  entered  at  opposite 
ends  of  the  corridor  down  the  middle  through 
which  a  wagon  might  drive.  Nothing  inter 
fered  with  their  progress  and  no  sound  was 
heard  except  a  sleeping  horse  occasionally 
changing  feet  on  the  board  floor  of  his  stall. 
Stealthily  the  four  figures  gathered  in  a  clus 
ter  and  turned  up  the  steep  stairway  that  led 
to  the  sleeping  room  of  Todd.  With  every  rifle 
ready  for  action  they  pushed  open  the  door. 


THE  CUMBERLANDS  21 

;Tlie  nioon  coining  in  at  a  window  disclosed  what 
seemed  to  be  a  sleeping  form  in  the  bed.  Delib 
erately  the  four  rifles  came  to  bear  upon  it. 
There  was  a  pause  and  then  from  the  leader 
came  the  order: 

"Fire!" 

Every  finger  pressed  the  trigger  of  its  rifle. 
Every  hammer  came  down  on  its  cap.  But  no 
report  followed.  Not  a  gun  had  been  dis 
charged. 

"Come  on  out  in  the  open,  you  sneakin' 
cowards,'7  came  a  clamorous  voice  from  the 
barnyard  that  was  recognized  as  being  that  of 
Todd.  * '  Come  out  in  the  lot  and  I  '11  larrup  you 
all." 

The  men  in  the  room  looked  puzzled,  one  at 
the  other,  and  then  at  the  form  on  the  bed. 
They  approached  the  latter  and  found  it  to  be 
but  a  dummy  to  represent  Todd.  They  had 
been  trapped.  They  would  fight  their  way  out. 

The  mountaineers  charged  down  the  stairway. 
As  they  came  into  the  moonlight  at  the  opening 
of  the  barn  they  faced  the  tall  form  of  a  man 
they  knew  well,  the  United  States  marshal  of 
the  district.  With  no  gun  in  his  hands  the  mar 
shal  raised  his  hands  on  high. 


22      UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

"Listen,  men,"  he  commanded.  "A  parley. 
You  are  trapped.  There  are  armed  men  at 
every  corner  of  this  building  and  every  man 
who  runs  out  of  it  will  be  shot  dead.  Your 
powder  has  been  wet  and  none  of  you  can  fire 
a  shot.  You  can't  fight  armed  men.  There  is 
but  one  thing  for  you  to  do  and  that  is  to  sur 
render.  ' ' 

In  the  parley  that  followed  the  marshal 
asked  each  man  to  try  his  gun  to  see  if  it  could 
be  fired.  None  would  respond.  The  moun 
taineers  found  themselves  caught  in  the  very  act 
of  attempting  to  kill  Todd,  whom  they  had  often 
threatened.  They  had  been  duped  and  trapped. 

So  had  these  young  detectives  of  the  new 
school  worked  out  a  most  difficult  case  and  one 
which  later  proved,  in  the  courts,  to  be  effective, 
for  every  man  arrested  is  now  serving  a  long 
term  in  prison  and  the  backbone  of  the  defiance 
of  law  in  this  region  is  broken. 

"Mr.  Summer  Boarder,"  said  the  curly- 
haired  Dowling, '  'it  is  back  to  the  ribbon  counter 
for  you.  Your  little  vacation  is  over.  But  I 
will  say  that  you  have  shown  remarkable  intel 
ligence  in  this  matter.  You  called  me  in  to 
help  you.  Little  drops  of  water  put  in  just  the 


THE  CUMBERLANDS  23 

right  place  saved  all  your  lives.  These  moun 
taineers  would  have  eaten  you  up  if  I  hadn't 
fixed  their  ammunition.  Please  thank  me— 

"Easy,  Windy  One,  easy,"  interjected  Gard. 
"Kiss  the  hand  of  the  man  who  lent  you  the 
brains  to  do  it  with. ' ' 


n 

THE  BANK   WEECKEK 

BILLY  G-AED  was  not  thinking  of  busi 
ness  at  all.  As  a  healthy,  ultranormal 
young  man,  he  was  drowsing  over  his 
breakfast  as  one  has  a  way  of  doing  when  at 
peace  with  the  world  and  when  unaroused  by 
any  call  of  the  present.  He  had  reached  the 
rolls  and  coffee  stage  of  his  meal  in  a  spirit  of 
detachment  that  took  no  account  of  the  some 
what  garish  flashiness  of  the  hotel  dining-room 
in  this  typical  hostelry  of  a  city  that  had  be 
come  noted  as  a  maker  of  industrial  million 
aires.  Then  as  his  glance  idly  trailed  among 
the  other  breakfasters,  it  automatically  picked 
up  an  incident  that  flashed  a  light  into  his  dor 
mant  brain  and  brought  it  to  full  consciousness. 
A  spoon  had  started  from  a  grape  fruit  to 
the  mouth  of  the  tall,  curly-haired  man  two 
tables  away.  Half  way  on  its  journey  the  hand 
which  held  it  had  twitched  violently  and  spilled 

24 


THE  BANK  WRECKER          25 

most  of  the  contents.  The  brown  eyes  of  the 
man  stole  out  somewhat  furtively  to  learn  if 
anybody  had  noticed  his  nervousness. 

Special  Agent  Billy  Gard  now  gazed  at  the 
ceiling,  but  his  mind  was  busy.  It  was  running 
over  the  facts  that  it  contained  with  relation 
to  Bayard  Alexander,  who  was  this  morning 
not  himself  and  apprehensive  lest  the  fact  be 
noticed.  For  Alexander  was  of  the  class  of 
men  of  whom  it  was  his  business  to  know.  He 
was  cashier  of  the  Second  National  bank  and 
Uncle  Sam  keeps  a  pretty  close  watch  on  such 
institutions  when  they  happen  to  be  located  in 
communities  of  feverish  activity. 

So  the  special  agent  recalled  that  the  tall  man 
with  the  damp  curls  was  a  moving  spirit  in  the 
city,  an  important  instrument  in  its  develop 
ment,  a  man  of  many  philanthropies,  personal 
friend  of  a  United  States  Senator,  cashier  and 
active  head  of  one  of  the  most  powerful  finan 
cial  institutions  in  the  community.  He  was  a 
man  of  very  great  energy,  but  one  who  led  a 
normal,  wholesome  life  and  who,  at  the  age  of 
forty-five,  seemed  just  coming  into  his  stride. 
The  bank  examiner,  Gard  recalled,  had  steadily 
given  the  Second  National  a  clean  bill  of  health. 


26      UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

Why,  then,  should  Alexander  be  nervous  and, 
granting  him  that  privilege,  why  should  he  fear 
its  being  noticed? 

All  of  which  was  the  seemingly  illogical  rea 
son  why  Gard  went  to  "Wheeling  that  very  night 
and  was  not  seen  about  the  metropolis  for  a 
week  thereafter. 

"I  am  a  poor  man,"  he  told  Allen,  the  stout 
bank  examiner,  when  they  met  in  the  West  Vir 
ginia  town.  "Poor  but  honest  and  not  trying 
to  borrow  money.  I  am  on  my  way  to  the  city 
of  opportunity  looking  for  a  job." 

"You  have  come  away  that  you  might  go 
back,  as  I  understand  it,"  said  Allen. 
"Couldn't  you  change  your  peacock  raiment  for 
a  hand-me-down  without  coming  to  Wheeling?" 

"Yes,  but  I  couldn't  see  you,  Cherub,"  said 
Gard,  "and  you  are  to  make  all  things  possi 
ble  for  me.  You  are  to  convert  me  from  a  dwel 
ler  in  gilded  palaces  to  a  bank  bookkeeper  out 
of  work,  but  with  credentials. 

"There  is  in  Wheeling  a  bank  cashier  of  your 
acquaintance,"  explained  the  special  agent, 
"who  used  to  work  beside  a  bookkeeper  whose 
friendship  I  want  to  cultivate.  You  introduce 
me  to  the  cashier,  he  finds  out  what  a  really 


THE  BANK  WRECKER          27 

good  fellow  I  am,  we  become  friends.  He  gives 
me  a  letter  of  introduction  to  the  man  I  want  to 
meet.  I  return  to  the  city  and  thrust  myself 
properly  into  the  affairs  of  one  Sloan,  book 
keeper  for  the  Second  National.  The  next  time 
the  corpulent  examiner  comes  around  he  gets 
the  surprise  of  his  life.  Do  you  follow  me!" 

Billy  Gard  had  reached  the  conclusion  that,  if 
there  was  anything  wrong  with  Bayard  Alex 
ander's  bank  the  examiner  was  being  deceived 
and  that,  therefore,  there  must  be  a  juggling  of 
accounts.  Bookkeeper  Charley  Sloan  of  the 
individual  ledgers  occupied  the  post  most  likely 
to  be  used  for  deception,  and  so  the  special 
agent  was  taking  a  lot  of  trouble  to  make  the 
right  opportunity  for  getting  friendly  with 
Charley.  That  mild  little  man  was  therefore 
favorably  impressed  when  he  was  handed  a  let 
ter  from  his  former  associate  who  had  gone  to 
Wheeling  and  become  a  cashier.  The  two  vis 
ited  so  agreeably  together  that  a  friendship 
developed  and  Gard  came  to  live  at  the  book 
keeper's  boarding  house.  The  two  accountants 
grew  to  spend  many  evenings  together  and 
naturally  talked  shop. 

"I  had  a  friend,"  said  Gard  one  evening, 


28      UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

4 'who  worked  in  a  bank  in  New  Orleans.  Next 
to  him  was  a  bookkeeper  who  went  wrong.  He 
was  indnced  to  do  this  by  a  depositor  who  had 
a  scheme  for  making  them  both  rich.  All  the 
depositor  needed  was  a  little  money.  So  he 
proposed  that  he  draw  checks  against  the  bank 
and  that  the  bookkeeper  charge  them  tempo 
rarily  to  other  accounts.  The  depositor  wonld 
cash  the  checks  at  other  banks  and,  when  they 
came  in,  the  teller  would  merely  turn  them  over 
to  the  bookkeeper,  probably  asking  if  there  was 
money  to  meet  them.  In  this  way  a  depositor 
who  never  had  a  thousand  dollars  in  the  bank 
eventually  checked  out  $50,000." 

"There  was  a  teller,"  Sloan  volunteered, 
"who  worked  in  a  bank  here  who  entered  the 
deposits  in  the  books  of  the  people  making  them 
and  put  the  money  in  his  pocket.  There  was  no 
record  of  it  except  in  the  pass  books.  He  got 
nearly  all  the  money  that  came  in  for  two 
months  before  he  was  found  out. ' ' 

"There  are  a  lot  of  ways  in  which  a  book 
keeper  may  hide  the  facts  with  relation  to  a 
bank,"  continued  the  special  agent.  "It  is 
pretty  safe  to  charge  anything  to  the  inactive 
account  of  an  estate  or  an  endowed  institution. 


THE  BANK  WRECKER          29 

These  are  not  often  looked  into.  The  accounts 
balance  for  the  examiner.  I'll  bet  there  isn't 
one  bank  in  a  dozen  that  doesn't  fool  the 
examiner. ' ' 

"It's  the  easiest  thing  in  the  world,"  volun 
teered  Sloan,  ' '  to  take  the  necessary  number  of 
leaves  out  of  the  loose-leaf  ledger  to  counter 
balance  it  if  the  cash  is  short,  and  hide  the  leaves 
until  the  examiner  is  gone." 

"Did  you  ever  know  that  to  be  done?" 
abruptly  asked  the  special  agent. 

The  bookkeeper  colored  to  his  temples  and 
was  noticeably  confused  at  the  question.  Then 
he  said  he  had  heard  of  its  being  done.  The 
sleuth  would  have  sworn  he  had  led  the  book 
keeper  into  a  confession. 

Nothing  was  more  natural  than  that  these  two 
bank  bookkeepers  should  recur  occasionally  to 
the  possibility  of  so  arranging  accounts  that 
were  in  questionable  condition  that  they  would 
be  passed  by  the  examiner.  Gard  would  lead  to 
this  in  such  a  way  that  the  bookkeeper  would 
seem  to  have  begun  these  discussions.  Then  he 
would  talk  freely.  He  would  tell  so  many  sto 
ries  that  the  timid  Sloan  would  want  to  relate 
a  few  in  furnishing  his  part  of  the  entertain- 


30      UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

ment.  But  Gard  knew  that  the  bookkeeper  was 
a  man  without  imagination  and  that  he  could 
relate  only  what  had  happened  in  his  experi 
ence.  So  he  was  all  ears  when  Sloan  one  night 
gave  his  opinions  on  the  subject  of  kiting. 

"Of  course,"  he  said,  "all  banks  have  deposi 
tors  who  kite  their  checks  and  thereby  get  hold 
of  money  which  they  may  use  for  a  week  before 
they  have  to  make  good.  A  depositor  may  turn 
in  a  check  for  a  thousand  dollars,  drawn  on  a 
New  York  bank  where  he  has  no  money.  At 
the  same  time  he  sends  the  New  York  bank  a 
check  for  the  same  amount,  drawn  on  you. 
This  causes  the  New  York  bank  to  honor  the 
check  drawn  against  it.  The  check  drawn  on 
you  has  to  find  its  way  through  the  clearing 
house  and  it  will  be  a  week  before  it  gets  back. 
In  the  meantime  the  depositor  has  had  the  use 
of  a  thousand  dollars. 

"But  when  it  comes  to  real  kiting,"  con 
tinued  the  bookkeeper,  "it  is  the  banks  them 
selves  that  do  it.  If  a  bank  has  a  sudden  call 
for  $100,000  and  hasn't  the  money,  all  it  has  to 
do  is  to  send  a  messenger  with  a  check  to  a 
friendly  bank  around  the  corner.  The  messen 
ger  gets  the  whole  amount  in  cash.  It  appears 


THE  BANK  WRECKER          31 

as  an  asset  of  the  bank.  It  will  be  two  or  three 
days  before  the  check  will  come  back  through 
the  clearing  house  and  appear  as  a  liability,  or 
the  friendly  bank  may  hold  it  up  even  longer. 
The  banks  may  be  swapping  this  sort  of  favors. 
The  bank  examiner  does  not  know  of  the  out 
standing  check.  He  is  out  of  town  before  it 
appears." 

Special  Agent  Billy  Gard  was  again  practi 
cally  certain  that  he  had  here  been  told  a  chap 
ter  out  of  the  experience  of  the  Second 
National.  He  began  to  see  his  way  clear  to  a 
denouement. 

That  same  night  events  were  transpiring  of 
which  he  was  to  know  a  week  later  but  which  as 
yet  were  held  in  confidence  among  the  directors 
of  the  Second  National.  They  took  place  at  a 
meeting  of  these  same  directors  called  by  a 
minority  which  was  dissatisfied  with  certain 
features  of  its  management.  Director  Hinton, 
a  sprightly  and  quick-tempered  little  man,  was 
the  leader  of  the  revolt.  Senator  Bothdoldt 
was  present  as  a  supporter  of  the  management 
of  the  bank  as  represented  by  the  suave,  force 
ful  cashier,  Bayard  Alexander,  whose  hand 
sometimes  shook  at  breakfast. 


32      UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

"I  want  to  protest,"  Hinton  began  by  launch 
ing  directly  into  the  heart  of  the  mattter  in 
hand,  "  against  this  new  loan  to  the  McGrath 
Construction  Company.  It  has  been  three 
years  now  that  we  have  been  pouring  out  our 
money  to  these  people.  We  have  $400,000  of 
their  paper  and  I  want  to  be  shown  that  we  can 
realize  on  it.  It  is  time  to  call  a  halt." 

"And  there  are  the  notes  of  the  Oldman  Mer 
cantile  Company,"  somewhat  heatedly  argued 
a  second  disaffected  director.  "I  have  been 
reliably  informed  within  the  last  two  days  that 
they  are  in  danger  of  going  to  the  wall." 

"And  we,  as  directors,  are  responsible  for  the 
bank,"  said  Mr.  Isaacs,  who  was  conservative. 

"I  for  one,"  said  Mr.  Hinton,  "have  reached 
the  point  where  I  insist  on  a  new  management, 
I  would  like  to  know  the  sentiment  of  the  board 
upon  this  question." 

But  the  cashier  asked  for  a  word  of  explana 
tion.  Broad-shouldered  and  upstanding  he 
rose  among  these  heavy,  sleek,  bald-headed 
business  men.  His  high  and  intellecual  brow 
and  clear-cut  features  gave  him  a  distinction 
that  always  made  an  impression.  But  the  firm 
mouth  and  the  damp  curls  were  those  of  a  man 


THE  BANK  WRECKER          33 

of  physical  force  and  determination.  His  voice 
was  alluring  and  convincing  as  he  made  his  plea 
and  there  was  now  no  tremble  of  the  hand. 

He  stated  and  called  upon  Senator  Bothdoldt 
to  witness  that  the  McGrath  Construction  Com 
pany  had  just  received  from  the  Government 
contracts  for  the  building  of  numerous  locks  in 
the  Ohio  Eiver.  He  agreed  with  the  spirit  of 
conservatism  of  the  board  and  shared  it.  He 
had  heard  the  rumors  with  relation  to  the  Old- 
man  Mercantile  Company  and  had  sifted  them 
to  their  depths  and  had  found  them  without 
basis  in  fact.  However,  he  had  just  called  in  a 
block  of  their  notes.  He  painted  a  rosy  picture 
of  the  condition  of  the  bank  and  the  prospects 
of  the  future.  He  reminded  the  directors  that 
they  had  given  him  a  free  hand  in  the  past  and 
pointed  to  the  institution  as  a  monument  to  his 
accomplishment.  At  the  termination  of  which 
speech,  so  convincing  and  so  dominant  was  the 
personality  of  the  man,  Director  Hinton  with 
drew  his  protest  and  the  institution  was  left 
under  the  former  guidance. 

It  was  three  days  later  that  things  began  to 
happen.  Gard  had  called  upon  Bank  Examiner 
Allen  to  come  to  his  assistance.  The  two  of 


34      UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

them  had  conferred  the  night  before  and  settled 
upon  a  plan  of  campaign  for  testing  the  stability 
of  the  affairs  of  the  bank. 

It  was  in  accordance  with  this  plan  that  the 
rotund  and  genial  Allen  breakfasted  in  that 
dining-room  where  the  special  agent's  suspi 
cions  had  first  been  aroused.  Bayard  Alexan 
der  was  at  his  usual  table  and  Allen  allowed 
the  banker  to  see  him  although  he  appeared  not 
to  be  aware  of  it.  It  was  also  in  accordance 
with  the  cards  played  by  the  men  of  the  Gov 
ernment  service  that  Special  Agent  Gard,  still 
a  bit  seedy  in  his  hand-me-down  suit,  was  loaf 
ing  on  the  sidewalk  opposite  the  Second 
National  bank  when  the  cashier  came  to  work. 
It  was  a  part  of  his  plan  that  he  should  see  as 
much  as  possible  of  what  went  on  in  the  institu 
tion  when  the  word  was  passed  that  the 
examiner  was  in  town. 

Gard  was  not  surprised,  therefore,  when  a 
messenger  emerged  from  the  bank  and  hurried 
off  down  the  street.  He  believed  that  the  story 
of  the  bookkeeper  of  the  kiting  bank  was  to  be 
enacted  before  his  eyes.  He  followed  the  mes- 
se^ger  to  another  bank  two  blocks  away  and 


THE  BANK  WRECKER          35 

there  saw  him  present  a  check.  Gard  crowded 
in  on  the  pretense  of  getting  a  bill  changed 
and  saw  blocks  of  bills  of  large  denomina 
tions  being  taken  from  the  vault.  The  mes 
senger  hurried  back  to  the  bank  with  them.  It 
was  evident  that  that  institution  was  making 
ready  for  the  coming  of  the  examiner.  It  was 
as  evident  that  its  affairs  were  not  as  they 
should  be  or  this  preparation  would  not  be 
necessary. 

It  was  a  part  of  the  program  that  when  Sloan, 
the  bookkeeper,  came  out  of  the  bank  for  lunch, 
Gard  should  be  waiting  for  him.  It  was  not 
unusual  that  they  thus  went  to  their  noonday 
meal  together. 

''Will  you  do  me  a  favor!"  asked  Sloan 
while  they  were  at  lunch.  "Take  care  of  this 
package  for  me.  It  is  a  large  photograph, 
rolled,  that  I  have  just  received  from  home. 
Please  be  careful  of  it." 

The  special  agent  assumed  charge  of  the 
package  which  looked  not  unlike  a  roll  of  music. 
Later  he  found  his  suspicions  justified  for  in  the 
roll  were  a  number  of  leaves  from  the  bank's 
individual  ledger.  Gard  was  appalled  at  the 


36      UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

amount  of  money  that  they  represented.  He 
carefully  photographed  them  and  returned  tkem 
that  night  to  the  bookkeeper. 

No  pretext  was  omitted  for  getting  a  look 
into  what  was  transpiring  in  the  Second 
National  bank  on  this  particular  day.  Exam 
iner  Allen  had  called  in  the  afternoon  and  had 
carefully  looked  over  the  balances.  All 
appeared  to  be  in  order  and  no  discrepancies 
were  revealed.  The  bank  seemed  particularly 
strong  from  the  standpoint  of  cash  on  hand. 

It  was  just  at  closing  time  that  two  things 
happened.  Gard  presented  himself  at  the  Sec 
ond  National  and  asked  to  see  the  cashier.  He 
had  become  known  there  as  an  associate  of 
Sloan's.  He  was  looking  for  a  position  as 
bookkeeper  and  it  was  for  this  he  came.  He 
waited. 

It  often  happens  that  an  individual  may 
wander  unannounced  into  quarters  the  pri 
vacy  of  which  are  ordinarily  closely  guarded. 
Gard  found  the  door  open  that  led  into  the  cor 
ridor  off  of  which  were  to  be  found  the  offices 
of  the  officials  of  the  bank.  He  walked  in  and 
wandered  down  the  row  until  he  found  that  of 
the  cashier.  This  he  entered  and  found 


THE  BANK  WRECKER          37 

entirely  empty.  It  was  a  spacious  room  with,  a 
big,  flat-topped  desk.  Across  one  corner  of  this 
was  thrown  a  coat,  and  a  hat  rested  upon  it. 
An  open  traveling  bag  stood  on  the  table. 

The  special  agent,  by  leaning  on  the  table  in 
the  attitude  of  waiting,  could  look  into  the  bag. 
There  he  saw  a  package  of  what  he  recognized 
as  a  well-known  issue  of  industrial  bonds  which 
the  examiner  had  listed  as  one  of  the  chief 
assets  of  the  bank.  It  should  have  been  in  the 
bank's  vaults,  instead  of  which  it  was  in  the 
cashier's  traveling  bag.  This  was  a  discovery 
well  worth  consideration. 

Cashier  Alexander  entered  the  room  hur 
riedly  from  another  part  of  the  bank.  He  was 
visibly  startled  to  find  some  one  present  and 
demanded  bruskly  what  the  intruder  was  doing 
there. 

"I  am  a  bookkeeper,  sir,"  said  the  special 
agent  very  humbly.  ' i  Sloan  is  a  friend  of  mine 
and  thought  you  might  employ  me." 

"I  can't  talk  to  you  to-night.  Come  around 
next  week." 

"But  may  I  not  come  to-morrow?"  said 
Gard. 

"I  will  be  out  of  town  for  three  days,"  Alex- 


38      UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

ander  said  finally.  "I  can't  talk  to  you  until 
after  that." 

The  special  agent  took  his  dismissal.  He 
had  learned  that  the  bank  cashier  was  going 
away  and  that  he  was  taking  a  package  of  the 
bank's  most  valuable  securities  with  him.  He 
was  going  some  distance  for  the  trip  was  to  last 
three  days.  His  destination  was  probably  New 
York. 

Meantime  the  genial  examiner  had  rolled  in 
upon  the  bank  to  which  the  Second  National  had 
sent  its  messenger,  at  about  closing  time.  He 
had  asked  to  see  the  transactions  of  the  day. 
Among  these  was  found  the  record  of  the  check 
that  had  been  cashed  early  in  the  morning.  It 
was  the  personal  check  of  Bayard  Alexander 
and  was  for  $125,000. 

The  two  representatives  of  the  Federal  Gov 
ernment  conferred  hurriedly. 

"And  the  securities,"  questioned  Gard. 
"Were  they  intact  when  you  were  at  the  bank 
this  morning?" 

" Everything  was  in  order,"  replied  Allen. 

1 '  The  package  of  the  industrials.  What  was 
its  value?" 

"About  $500,000,"  replied  the  examiner. 


THE  BAXK  WRECKER          39 

"Alexander  is  leaving  to-night  with  these 
securities.  He  may  be  taking  the  $125,000  in 
cash  with  him.  The  time  has  come  for  his 
arrest.  Particularly  must  we  guard  those 
assets  and  prevent  any  unnecessary  demands 
upon  the  bank. ' ' 

* '  He  may  be  making  a  run  for  Canada, ' '  said 
Allen. 

"The  securities  will  take  him  to  New  York 
that  he  may  realize  upon  them,"  was  Gard's 
deduction.  "I  am  for  the  station  and  will  fol 
low  him  if  he  takes  any  train.  You  try  for  his 
trail  about  town  and  report  to  me  there." 

But  after  all  it  was  a  piece  of  luck  that  saved 
the  day  for  Gard.  He  was  racing  for  the  sta 
tion  in  a  taxicab  when  his  machine  was  halted 
at  a  crossing.  Another  taxicab  pulled  up 
beside  his,  waited  a  minute,  two  minutes.  He 
could  see  the  driver  from  where  that  individual 
sat  not  six  feet  away  and  just  opposite  his  win 
dow.  Presently  this  chauffeur  bent  down  to 
get  instructions  from  his  fare.  The  man  in  the 
taxicab  was  talking  quietly,  but  so  near  was  he 
to  the  special  agent  that  he  could  be  easily  over 
heard. 

"Get  out  of  this  jam,"  he  was  saying.    "Cut 


40      UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

across  town  to  the  North  side  station.  We  have 
already  missed  the  6 :15.  If  you  head  it  off  at 
the  North  side  it  is  worth  a  twenty-dollar  bill 
to  you." 

The  voice  was  smooth  and  unruffled.  Yet  it 
was  dominant.  It  set  the  driver  immediately 
upon  edge  and  into  motion.  And  there  was  in 
it  a  familiar  note  that  puzzled  the  detective  for 
a  moment,  then  brought  back  the  interview  of 
the  afternoon.  Yes,  it  was  Bayard  Alexander 
talking. 

It  was  hard  luck  that  caused  a  crossing  police 
man  to  let  the  first  automobile  through  and  shut 
off  the  second.  It  was  the  worst  sort  of  luck 
that  caused  the  special  agent  to  arrive  at  the 
North  side  station  just  as  the  gate  was  slammed 
and  made  it  necessary  for  him  to  produce  cre 
dentials  to  get  through.  He  was  barely  able  to 
swing  into  the  vestibule  of  a  sleeper  as  the 
train  was  getting  under  way.  It  was  particu 
larly  hazardous  from  the  standpoint  of  accom 
plishing  the  end  he  had  in  mind,  for  he  did  not 
even  know  if  Alexander  was  aboard  and  faced 
the  danger  of  having  ridden  away  on  the  fastest 
train  to  New  York  and  left  his  work  behind 
him.  Even  if  the  man  he  was  after  was  aboard 


THE  BANK  WRECKER          41 

there  was  the  chance  that  he  had  become  aware 
of  the  chase  and  would  take  precaution  to  out 
wit  him. 

But  now  there  was  no  hurry.  His  man  was 
or  was  not  on  the  train  and  the  porter  told  him 
there  would  be  no  stop  for  two  hours.  The 
special  agent  was  still  a  good  deal  of  a 
youngster  with  an  appreciation  of  the  dramatic 
and  here  was  a  situation  that  appealed  to  him. 
He  wondered  if  he  were  riding  into  the  dusk  on 
a  wild  goose  chase,  or  if  he  had  cornered  this 
fugitive  master-crook,  with  a  traveling  bag  con 
taining  half  a  million  dollars  of  other  peoples' 
money.  He  pictured  the  man  he  was  after — 
the  suave,  confident,  stealthy  cashier,  who  had 
stolen  his  hundreds  of  thousands  and  had,  by  the 
very  force  of  him,  compelled  his  subordinates 
to  hide  his  shortcomings.  He  wondered  if  this 
man  of  action  was  expecting  pursuit  or  if  he 
was  riding  on  in  confidence  of  being  able  to 
make  his  escape.  He  thought  of  the  satchel 
that  the  cashier  carried  and  of  his  responsi 
bility,  as  a  Government  agent,  for  safeguarding 
its  contents.  It  was  something  of  an  assign 
ment  for  a  youngster. 

"And  Mother  used  to  say  to  me,"  grinned 


42      UNCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

Billy  to  himself,  "when  she  sent  me  around  the 
corner  for  a  dozen  eggs :  '  Do  be  careful  to  bring 
back  the  change,  and  for  goodness'  sake  don't 
drop  the  bag.'  I  wish  Mother  could  see  me 
now. ' ' 

Whereupon  William  H.  Gard  of  the  United 
States  Department  of  Justice  arose  and  went 
to  the  front  of  the  train.  From  this  point  he 
worked  steadily  back,  making  sure  that  he  saw 
every  passenger,  looking  each  over  with  suffi 
cient  scrutiny  that  a  disguise  would  not  have 
escaped  him,  making  sure  that  the  man  he 
sought  was  in  the  portion  of  the  train  to  the 
rear.  It  began  to  look  as  though  he  had  actu 
ally  boarded  a  train  which  the  fugitive  had 
failed  to  catch. 

Dark  was  just  coming  on.  It  was  that  hour 
when  most  of  the  passengers  on  a  train  are  to 
be  found  in  the  diner.  It  happened  that  this 
train  was  running  light  and  now  the  sleepers 
were  practically  deserted  but  for  the  nodding 
porters.  Through  one  after  another  of  these 
the  special  agent  passed  until  there  remained 
only  the  observation  car  at  the  end.  It  was 
here  that  he  would  find  his  quarry  or  prove  him 
self  outwitted. 


THE  BANK  WRECKER          43 

When  he  came  into  the  observation  car 
through  the  narrow  hall  that  leads  to  it,  a 
lounging  figure  by  the  door  drew  itself  taut. 
Instinctively  it  put  its  hand  to  a  traveling  bag 
that  rested  on  the  next  chair.  Then  it  remained 
still. 

The  special  agent  came  direct  dawn  the  car 
and  went  immediately  to  the  task  in  hand. 

"You  are  Bayard  Alexander,"  he  said,  "and 
my  prisoner." 

The  cashier  was,  after  all,  surprised.  He 
was  not  aware  that  he  was  being  followed.  He 
sprang  forward  in  his  chair  but  met  the  glint 
of  a  pistol  in  the  hand  of  the  special  agent. 

"And  you!  Oh,  I  see!"  said  the  cashier, 
recovering  himself.  "The  bookkeeper  was  not 
a  bookkeeper  after  all." 

"I  am  an  agent  of  the  Department  of  Jus 
tice,"  said  Gard.  "You  are  under  arrest." 

The  tall  figure  of  the  cashier  had  risen  from 
its  chair.  To  the  traveling  bag  he  clung 
instinctively.  The  situation  seemed  entirely  in 
the  control  of  the  special  agent  with  gun  drawn 
and  the  retreat  cut  off.  Yet,  like  a  flash,  the 
cashier  turned  the  knob  of  the  door  that  led  out 
upon  the  rear  platform  of  the  observation  car. 


44      UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

The  gun  of  the  special  agent  spit  forth  a  flame, 
but  whether  he  had  intended  to  bring  down  his 
man  or  not  he  was  afterward  quite  unable  to 
recall. 

But  with  a  leap  he  was  after  and  upon  the 
fugitive.  He  suspected  the  intent  of  the  cashier 
to  throw  himself  from  the  train,  to  end  all  in 
suicide.  He  saw  the  traveling  bag  getting 
beyond  his  reach.  It  was  the  last  thing  that 
would  have  appealed  to  him  to  stand  idly  by 
while  such  incidents  were  taking  place. 

The  two  men  grappled.  A  new  purpose 
flashed  into  the  mind  of  the  cashier.  Here  was 
he  given  an  unexpected  opportunity  for  free 
dom.  Only  the  special  agent  stood  in  his  way. 
If  he  could  but  drop  this  youngster  over  the  rail, 
suicide  would  be  unnecessary.  A  new  purpose 
came  into  his  tall,  lithe  form.  It  was  to  be  put 
to  the  task  of  fighting  for  its  own  preservation. 

And  such  a  setting  for  a  fight!  The  clamor 
of  the  train  beat  into  the  blood  of  the  con 
testants  like  the  applause  of  an  arena.  The 
swish  of  the  platform  as  the  express  dashed 
through  the  darkness  at  seventy  miles  an  hour 
made  the  ordinary  strategy  of  battle  uncertain. 
Beyond  the  narrow  rail  that  skirted  this  plat- 


THE  BANK  WRECKER          45 

form  upon  which  their  fight  was  staged  death 
waited  expectant  on  three  sides.  There  were 
now  no  weapons  and  the  contestants  went  back 
to  the  primal  in  a  tooth  and  fang  grapple  for 
existence  as  might  two  frenzied  bears  at  bay. 

The  cashier  was  the  larger  man  and  one  who 
had  always  kept  in  condition  through  gymna 
sium  work.  The  special  agent  was  lither  and 
younger.  The  larger  man  was  determined  that 
he  would  thrust  the  smaller  over  the  rail  and 
fling  him  from  the  train.  He  fought  his  way  to 
the  edge  of  the  platform,  forcing  his  antagonist 
farther  and  farther  over  it,  hammering  him 
down  by  the  sheer  superiority  of  weight  and 
strength. 

But  all  the  time  the  special  agent  was  playing 
to  his  own  advantage.  He  was  getting  low 
beneath  the  guard  of  the  cashier.  His  arms 
had  found  an  iron  lock  beneath  his  antagonist's 
coat  and  about  his  waist.  He  felt  that  this  hold 
could  not  be  broken  and  that  a  time  would  come 
when  the  strength  of  the  larger  man  would 
wane.  He  could  afford  to  wait. 

It  was  but  a  swish  of  the  train  that  gave  him 
the  slight  advantage  he  sought  in  taking  the 
aggressive.  It  swayed  the  tall  form  of  his 


46      UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

enemy  as  it  towered  above  him  a  little  back 
ward.  This  put  the  spine  in  a  position  where 
it  could  not  immediately  resist  a  strong  pres 
sure.  Already  he  had  felt  a  give  in  the  body 
muscles  that  meant  the  first  approach  of  weak 
ness.  Like  a  flash  his  head  was  in  the  tall 
man's  chest,  all  his  strength  was  in  his  arms, 
and  he  was  administering  that  treatment  known 
in  his  youth  as  the  "Indian  hug."  Slowly  he 
overcame  his  antagonist,  bent  him  back,  and 
they  came  tumbling  among  the  chairs  of  the 
observation  platform. 

From  the  fall  came  a  new  grip  to  the  advan 
tage  of  the  special  agent.  As  they  went  down 
he  flung  his  legs  around  his  antagonist,  and  was 
able  to  get  the  wrestler's  "scissors"  about  his 
waist,  thus  applying  pressure  where  there  was 
already  exhaustion  and  allowing  his  legs,  which 
were  rested,  to  bear  the  brunt. 

Thus  were  they  locked  when  the  brakernan 
came  to  the  rear  and  found  them.  But  the  bat 
tle  was  already  near  its  end.  For  the  flash  of  a 
moment  the  cashier  rallied  and  acted.  In  that 
moment  his  hands  seized  and  flung  from  the 
train  the  grip  with  its  precious  burden.  Then 
ie  sank  into  unconsciousness. 


THE  BANK  WRECKER          47 

Billy  Gard  had  ridden  back  to  the  section  of 
the  road  where  the  traveling  bag  had  gone  over 
board,  and  had  waited  for  the  coming  of  day 
light  to  search  for  it.  In  the  gray  dawn  he 
walked  down  the  track  and  met  an  Irish  section 
man,  who  had  already  picked  it  up. 

"I  see  you  have  found  my  satchel,"  said 
Gard,  accosting  him. 

'  *  Your  satchel  it  may  be, ' '  said  the  Irishman, 
"but  you  will  have  to  be  after  tellin'  me  what's 
in  it  by  way  of  identification. ' ' 

"Nothing  much  beside  half  a  million  dol 
lars,"  said  the  special  agent,  proffering  the 
key. 

The  man  who  had  found  the  traveling  bag 
looked  inside  and,  as  far  as  Billy  Gard  knows, 
never  spoke  again.  He  was  still  dumb  with 
amazement  when  the  young  man  drove  away  in 
his  automobile. 


m 

A   FIASCO   IN   FIREARMS 

IT  is  here  set  down  for  the  first  time  that 
Special  Agent  Billy  Gard  of  the  United 
States   Department   of   Justice   trod   the 
deck  of  the  good  German  ship  Esmiranga  and 
smoked  many  Mexican  cigarettes  on  that  his 
toric  morning  in  April,  1914,   when   she   ap 
proached  the  port  of  Vera  Cruz,  loaded  to  the 
gunwales  with  ammunition  for  the  Huertistas, 
and    precipitated    the    landing    of    American 
marines. 

Also  it  was  here  first  told  that  it  was  the  hand 
of  Billy  Gard  that  lighted  the  match  that  ignited 
the  powder  that  caused  the  explosion  that  kept 
Yankee  fighting  men  in  Mexico  for  many 
months  and  the  big  American  sister  republics 
on  the  verge  of  war.  For  the  action  of  the  head 
of  the  government  of  a  hundred  million  of  peo 
ple,  the  orders  extended  to  the  military,  the 

48 


A  FIASCO  IN  FIREARMS        49 

shuttling  of  battleships  and  transports,  were 
based  upon  mysteriously  received  messages 
from  this  young  representative  of  the  United 
States,  who  through  a  combination  of  chance 
and  design  found  himself  strangely  placed  in 
the  center  of  a  web  of  circumstance. 

It  had  all  started  in  a  New  York  hotel  six 
months  before.  It  was  not  entirely  out  of  keep 
ing  with  what  was  to  follow  that  a  huge  and 
bewhiskered  Russian  should  have  staged  the 
prologue  of  what  was  later  to  assume  something 
of  the  nature  of  an  international  farce.  But  it 
was  such  a  man,  registering  himself  as  G.  Ege- 
loff,  pronouncing  some  of  his  indifferent  Eng 
lish  with  the  explosiveness  of  Kussia  and  some 
of  it  with  the  lilting  softness  of  Latin  America, 
who  created  a  scene  in  a  Manhattan  hotel  and 
thus  first  introduced  the  whole  matter.  He  had 
arrived  but  a  moment  before,  dusty,  disheveled, 
empty  handed.  The  room  clerk  had  suggested 
that  it  was  the  custom  of  the  hotel  that  guests 
without  baggage  should  pay  in  advance.  Then 
had  come  the  explosion  accompanied  by  oaths 
in  four  languages. 

The  man  with  the  wiskers  called  upon  all  to 
witness  that  this  indignity  had  been  placed  upon 


50      UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

him,  Gr.  Egeloff,  the  representative  of  rulers  of 
nations,  the  bearer  of  credentials,  the  possessor 
of  enough  money  in  his  one  vest  pocket  to  buy 
the  hotel  in  question  and  turn  it  into  a  barracks 
for  his. peons. 

Whereupon  he  produced  from  the  vest  pocket 
in  question  a  draft  on  the  Mexican  treasury  for 
the  neat  sum  of  three  million  dollars  in  gold, 
signed  by  none  other  than  Victoriano  Huerta 
himself.  At  which  signal  the  entire  hotel  staff 
salaamed  profoundly,  the  man  who  swore  was 
escorted  to  the  best  suite  and  the  house  detec 
tive  telephoned  to  the  special  agents  of  the 
Department  of  Justice. 

Billy  Gard  was  forthwith  sent  out  to  deter 
mine  the  legitimacy  of  the  mission  of  this 
strange  representative  of  turbulent  Mexico. 

In  three  days  he  knew  that  Egeloff  was  in 
touch  with  those  representatives  of  the  Huerta 
regime  with  whom  the  Department  of  Justice 
was  already  acquainted  and  whose  activities 
centered  about  a  certain  Mexican  boarding 
house  just  off  Union  square.  He  also  knew 
that  the  Eussian  had  called  up  from  his  hotel 
room  certain  manufacturers  of  munitions 
whose  factories  were  in  Hartford  and  that  rep- 


A  FIASCO  IN  FIREARMS        51 

resentatives   of  those  firms  had  visited  him. 

Gard  had  drawn  the  conclusion  that  the  Rus 
sian  was  buying  ammunition  for  the  Mexican 
government.  Since  the  United  States  was 
denying  clearance  to  ships  with  such  cargoes 
destined  to  either  faction  to  the  controversy  to 
the  south,  it  was  necessary  that  all  the  facts  be 
ascertained. 

But  it  developed  that  the  strong  current  of 
the  plans  of  the  man  from  Mexico  ran  through 
Valentines,  that  outfitter  of  revolutionists  and 
dealer  in  second-hand  and  out-of-date  war  mate 
rial.  Valentines  based  his  operations  upon  the 
principle  that  the  discarded  munitions  of  pro 
gressive  nations  are  plenty  good  enough  for  use 
in  Latin- America  and  that  the  purchase  of  all 
guch,  no  matter  how  antiquated,  offers  a  good 
opportunity  for  profit.  Hardly  a  warlike  ven 
ture  in  the  tumultuous  lands  to  the  south  has 
run  its  course  within  recent  years  without  lean 
ing  heavily  upon  Valentines. 

Knowing  this,  Gard  was  particularly  anxious 
to  find  out  what  was  transpiring  within  when, 
on  a  murky  Saturday  night,  he  followed  the 
Russian  and  three  of  his  Mexican  associates 
through  the  narrow  lanes  of  the  lower  East 


52      UNCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

Side,  beneath  its  clanging  elevated,  and  to  the 
side  door  of  Valentines,  within  which  they  dis 
appeared. 

He  had  previously  reconnoitered  the  sur 
roundings.  He  knew  that  Valentines  had  taken 
great  care  in  guarding  the  privacy  of  his  estab 
lishment.  The  dark  back  room  in  which  his  con 
ferences  were  held  had  but  one  entrance,  which 
was  from  the  main  establishment.  The  area- 
way  upon  which  its  single  window  looked  faced 
the  wall  of  a  printing  house,  broken  by  but  three 
or  four  small  windows,  as  is  so  often  the  case 
with  these  blank  surfaces.  Gard  had  made  note 
of  the  fact  that  one  of  these  windows  was  oppo 
site  and  above  that  in  the  back  room  of  Valen 
tines.  He  had  gained  admission  to  the  print 
ing  house  and  had  viewed  the  adjoining 
premises  from  this  high  window. 

A  single  possibility  presented  itself.  This 
was  that  Valentines  might  leave  his  curtain  up 
and  that  Jane  Gates  might  help  with  the  case. 

Jane  Gates  occupied  a  warm  spot  in  the 
hearts  of  the  special  agents  and  they  were 
always  particular  that  when  they  called  upon 
her  there  was  no  possibility  of  unpleasant 
experiences,  and  the  way  seemed  clear  here. 


A  FIASCO  IX  FIREARMS       53 

She  was  a  deaf  girl,  known  among  them  as  the 
Lily  Maid,  born  without  the  sense  of  hearing 
but  mistress  of  the  inestimable  difficulties  of 
lip  reading  and  the  possessor  of  the  nimblest 
set  of  fingers  in  the  world,  these  latter  earning 
her  a  place  as  copyist  for  the  service.  Her 
face  was  of  a  cameo  beauty,  with  a  touch  of 
pathos  because  of  her  isolation.  She  was  the 
warm  spot  in  the  heart  of  the  office  but,  as  its 
very  spirit  was  the  untangling  of  riddles,  she 
had  found  opportunity  to  help  in  a  novel  way 
in  several  difficult  cases  through  her  ability  at 
lip  reading. 

By  prearrangement  Jane  Gates,  on  this  Sat 
urday  night,  was  awaiting  at  the  office  not  half 
a  dozen  blocks  away  a  possible  call  from  Billy 
Gard.  Barrett  had  a  taxi  at  the  front  door 
and  the  expected  summons  brought  him  to  the 
publishing  house  in  five  minutes.  Beneath  a 
light  in  the  hall  Gard  told  the  deaf  girl  of  the 
situation,  for  lip  reading  needs  light.  Soon 
they  were  in  the  gloom  by  the  little  window  and 
the  eager  eyes  of  the  Lily  Maid  were  looking 
into  the  office  opposite  where  the  conference  on 
munitions  was  going  forward.  Fortunately 
Valentines  did  not  speak  Spanish  and  aD  inter- 


54      UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

preter  was  necessary.  The  face  of  this  man 
was  in  plain  view  not  thirty  feet  away. 

Soon  Jane  Gates  was  repeating  in  the  pecu 
liar,  hollow  voice  of  those  who  do  not  hear  but 
have  learned  to  form  words  with  the  lips : 

"Mauser  ammunition — old  Krupp  rapid-fire 
guns — Seventy  five — " 

Gard  stepped  beyond  the  range  of  view  from 
the  opposite  window.  He  turned  a  pocket 
flashlight  on  his  own  lips. 

1 '  Try  to  find  out  how  they  are  to  be  shipped, ' y 
he  instructed. 

"Could  supply  a  total  amounting  to  $750,000 
in  value,"  the  girl  repeated  after  the  inter 
preter. 

"Delivered  in  thirty  clays — Brooklyn — how 
can  you  get  clearance  papers?" 

"We  clear  for  Odessa,"  the  interpreter's 
lips  said.  * '  The  United  States  must  accept  our 
claim  of  that  destination.  We  know  hovr  to 
evade  embargo  regulations." 

Valentines  had  been  walking  nervously  about 
the  room.  At  this  moment  he  approached  the 
window  and  pulled  down  the  curtain  that 
looked  into  the  courtyard.  The  work  of  the 
lip  reader  was  at  an  end. 


A  FIASCO  IN  FIREARMS        55 

It  was  a  month  later  when  Gard  had  traced 
a  consignment  of  ammunition  from  the  factory 
at  Hartford  to  its  place  on  a  Brooklyn  pier 
where  it  lay  ready  for  shipment.  It  seemed 
the  last  of  the  American  goods  that  were 
needed  to  complete  the  cargo  of  the  Italian 
bark,  City  of  Naples,  that  was  ready  to  sail. 
It  appeared  that  papers  had  already  been  taken 
out,  that  the  manifests  acknowledged  the  pres 
ence  of  great  quantities  of  war  munitions,  but 
that  the  claim  was  made  that  the  cargo  was 
bought  for  South  Russian  dealers  and  bound 
for  Odessa. 

Gard  hurriedly  ascertained  that  the  United 
States  would  not  refuse  permission  for  the  ship 
to  sail.  It  was,  however,  anxious  to  keep  in 
touch  with  its  movements.  Could  the  special 
agent  find  a  way  to  accompany  her!  Gard 
would  try. 

Half  an  hour  later  a  young  Italian  strolled 
down  the  pier  just  as  the  last  of  the  cargo  was 
being  taken  aboard  the  City  of  Naples.  He 
was  dressed  in  a  well-worn,  light-checked,  some 
what  flashy  suit,  a  scarlet  vest,  a  flowing  tie. 
His  dark  locks  breathed  forth  odors  of  the 
lotions  of  cheap  barber  shops.  He  walked  non- 


56      UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

chalantly  aboard  the  Italian  bark  and  went 
below. 

The  vessel  was  just  breaking  loose  from  her 
moorings  when  the  stowaway  was  discovered. 
There  had  been  great  haste  in  her  sailing  and 
she  was  making  for  the  seas  two  hours  ahead 
of  her  appointed  time.  The  stowaway  sur 
mised  that  there  was  every  reason  why  her  of 
ficers  would  fear  delay  and  that,  if  he  could 
remain  below  decks  until  she  was  under  way, 
the  vessel  would  not  be  stopped  to  put  him 
ashore. 

It  was  from  this  situation  that  an  unequal 
fight  developed  in  which  three  sailormen  sought 
to  drag  an  unwilling  youngster  in  a  plaid  suit 
from  the  hold  to  the  deck  that  he  might  be  put 
off  the  ship.  But  the  first  of  the  attacking  force 
proved  himself  unfamiliar  with  the  strategy  of 
a  lead  with  the  left  to  make  an  opening  for  a 
swing  with  the  right,  and  so  this  latter  blow 
caught  him  on  the  chin  and  he  went  down  and 
out.  The  second  sailor  was  a  squarehead  and 
rushed  his  antagonist.  The  stowaway  ducked 
and  the  force  of  the  Swede  increased  the  sever 
ity  of  a  mighty  jab  with  the  right  in  the  pit  of 


A  FIASCO  IN  FIREARMS       57, 

tlie  stomach,  which  happened  at  the  time  to  he 
unusually  full,  and  the  attacker  crumbled  with 
an  agony  in  his  inwards.  The  stowaway  grap 
pled  with  the  third  man  and  showed  an  addi 
tional  knowledge  of  the  science  of  the  rough 
and  tumble.  He  twisted  one  of  that  individ 
ual's  hands  behind  him  and  pushed  it  up,  using 
the  favorite  jiu  jitsu  trick  that  American  po 
licemen  have  borrowed  from  the  Japanese.  In 
this  way  he  had  his  man  at  his  mercy. 

"Mother  of  Jesus,"  came  a  roar  from  the 
doorway  in  most  indifferent  Spanish.  " Where 
did  you  learn  it  all  f ' ' 

The  stowaway  looked  up  and  saw  the  huge 
form  of  the  bearded  Russian  who  represented 
the  government  of  Mexico  standing  there. 

"In  the  United  States,"  he  answered  in 
Spanish.  "Ah,  they  are  wonderful,  those 
Americans!" 

It  should  be  remembered  that  Billy  Gard,  for 
it  was  he,  had  lived  abroad  when  a  boy  with  his 
father  who  was  in  the  consular  service.  He 
had  learned  the  languages  of  the  Mediterranean 
almost  before  he  spoke  English  and  was  there 
fore  much  at  home  among  its  people*  And 


58      UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

cause  of  this  he  had  been  able  to  become  an 
Italian  stowaway  in  half  an  hour  at  a  second 
hand  store  in  Brooklyn. 

"But  why  all  this  fighting?"  asked  the  Rus 
sian. 

"I  would  go  back  to  Italy,  bon  Italy,"  said 
the  stowaway.  '  *  These  pigs  of  sailormen  know 
not  how  homesick  I  am.  They  would  put  me 
ashore.  I  not  go.  You  see  the  result." 

"Well,  you  will  not  be  put  ashore  now,"  said 
the  Eussian.  "I  happen  to  be  interested  in 
this  cargo,  and  I  want  no  delay.  You  may 
come  on  deck  with  me. ' ' 

It  happened  in  this  way  that  Billy  Gard  went 
to  sea  with  a  large  cargo  of  Mexican  ammuni 
tion,  little  believing  that  it  would  ever  cross  to 
Europe.  Since  he  was  aboard  and  might  not 
be  otherwise  disposed  of,  the  Italian  captain 
set  him  to  work  as  a  clerk,  and  got  much  good 
service  out  of  him  on  the  ship's  books  before 
land  was  again  sighted.  It  happened  in  this 
way,  also,  that  he  was  given  an  opportunity  to 
study  and  cultivate  G.  Egeloff,  but  little  came 
of  it  because  of  the  all-sufficiency  of  that  gen 
tleman  within  himself. 

Gard  was  greatly  surprised  when  the  City  of 


A  FIASCO  IN  FIREARMS        59 

Naples  maintained  her  course  straight  across 
the  Atlantic.  Even  more  surprised  was  he 
when  she  passed  in  at  Gibraltar,  ignored  the 
ports  of  Spain,  sailed  past  the  towns  of  her 
nativity  in  Italy  and  on  to  the  east.  Not  until 
the  Dardanelles  and  the  Bosphorus  were  passed 
was  he  convinced  that  she  was  bound  for  the 
port  for  which  she  had  cleared.  But  after  six 
weeks  at  sea  she  reached  Odessa,  on  the  Black 
Sea,  and  there  put  into  port. 

But  at  Odessa  the  unexpected  happened. 
The  authorities,  being  by  temperament  suspi 
cious  and  ever-vigilant  of  anarchistic  plots, 
refused  to  let  the  ship  unload  her  cargo  of  am 
munition.  Egeloff  stormed  and  swore  and 
bribed,  but  all  to  no  avail.  The  ammunition 
might  not  be  landed. 

Billy  Gard  managed  to  get  ashore  and  find 
his  way  to  the  American  consulate.  From 
there  he  was  able  to  make  his  report  to  the 
home  office  and  receive  instructions  that  he  was 
to  remain  with  the  ammunition  cargo. 

The  special  agent  found  his  task  compara 
tively  easy  here,  and  merely  had  to  wait  for 
events  to  take  their  normal  course.  His  chief 
interest  was  G.  Egeloff,  who  had  remained  a 


GO      UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

mystery  to  Mm  despite  a  semi-friendship  that 
had  slowly  grown  up  between  them.  He  had 
attempted  in  vain  to  lead  the  Russian  into  a 
discussion  of  his  future  plans  in  Mexico,  and 
had  grown  to  suspect  that  the  gentleman  had 
no  such  plans.  At  Odessa  the  big  man  seemed 
impatient  of  delay,  and,  Gard  thought,  rather 
reckless  of  the  disposition  of  his  charge. 

The  representative  of  the  United  States  had 
been  contemplating  the  value  of  the  guns 
bought  at  Valentines  and  the  figure  of  $750,000 
.which  the  Lily  Maid  had  caught  from  the  lips 
of  the  interpreter.  He  knew  that  the  pur 
chases  at  Hartford  had  not  exceeded  $100,000. 
He  drew  the  conclusion  that  this  strange  rep 
resentative  of  the  Indian  head  of  a  Latin- 
American  nation  would  probably  give  less  than 
value  for  the  $3,000,000  that  had  been  placed 
in  his  hands  for  the  purchase  of  American  mu 
nitions  of  war. 

The  special  agent  was  still  attached  to  the 
'City  of  Naples  as  clerk  when,  after  ten  days  of 
futile  attempts  at  landing  her  cargo,  she  again 
turned  her  nose  to  the  sea.  She  was  two  days 
out  when  he  became  assured  of  a  fact  which  he 
had  suspected.  The  Russian  was  not  aboard. 


A  FIASCO  IN  FIREARMS       61 

Tke  ship  picked  her  course  through  the  Medi 
terranean,  out  again  past  Gibraltar,  but,  in 
stead  of  striking  out  toward  Mexico  as  Gard 
had  suspected  she  would,  she  steered  to  the 
north  and  eventually  came  to  anchor  in  the  port 
of  Hamburg  on  a  windy  morning  in  March. 

At  Hamburg  there  was  assurance  of  ability 
to  discharge  cargo.  No  sooner  had  the  ship 
tied  up  than  its  long-restrained  personnel  of 
officers  and  crew  availed  themselves  of  the  free 
dom  of  shore  leave.  As  the  afternoon  wore  on, 
the  vessel  was  deserted  with  the  exception  of 
the  Italian  second  mate  and  a  few  members  of 
the  crew.  Gard  stuck  to  his  desk  in  the  pur 
ser's  cabin.  It  was  from  this  point  of  vantage 
that  he  became  aware  of  an  altercation  on  deck. 
An  American  voice  was  saying  in  English: 

"Mr.  Egeloff ;  I  want  to  see  Mr.  Egeloff." 

The  second  mate  protested  his  inability  to 
speak  English,  whereupon  a  second  voice  re 
peated  the  request  in  Spanish,  with  no  better 
result.  Then  of  a  sudden  a  great  light  seemed 
to  break  on  the  second  mate. 

"Ah!  Si,  seiior.  If  you  will  be  so  good  as 
to  step  this  way." 

Whereupon  he  led  the  strangers  to  the  cabin, 


62      UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

where  he  knew  Gard  to  be  at  work,  and,  remem 
bering  that  the  supposed  clerk  spoke  many 
languages,  he  turned  the  visitors  over  to  him. 

"Mr.  Egeloff?"  asked  the  American,  evi 
dently  misinterpreting  the  action  of  the  mate. 

The  special  agent  was  taken  entirely  by  sur 
prise.  The  possibilities  of  such  a  situation 
had  never  presented  themselves  to  him. 

"What  if  I  am?"  he  asked  cautiously. 

"I  am  McKay,"  said  the  American. 

"You  have  credentials,  I  suppose,"  said 
Gard. 

"Yes,"  answered  that  individual.  "I  am 
authorized  to  provide  for  the  reshipment  of  the 
cargo." 

Whereupon  he  presented  letters  from  the 
Mexican  government  showing  him  to  be  its 
agent  in  London.  His  companion  he  intro 
duced  as  Mr.  Sanchez,  Mexican  consul  at 
Hamburg,  whereupon  the  three  dropped  into 
Spanish  and  continued  the  conversation. 
Gard  presented  letters  he  had  found  in  the 
ship's  office  and  addressed  to  these  gentlemen. 
He  took  it  that  these  letters  were  from  the 
Mexican  consul  at  Odessa.  They  evidently 
asked  the  men  to  whom  they  were  addressed  to 


A  FIASCO  IN  FIREARMS        63 

do  what  they  could  toward  expediting  the 
transshipment  of  the  cargo. 

"We  have  all  arrangements  made,"  McKay 
volunteered.  "The  Esmiranga  will  take  our 
stuff  aboard  immediately  and  is  sailing  for 
Vera  Cruz  in  six  days." 

"I  have  had  the  very  devil  of  a  time,"  said 
the  special  agent,  introducing  the  rasp  of  an 
occasional  Eussian  consonant  into  his  Spanish 
as  he  had  heard  it  done  for  two  months  by  the 
man  whose  role  was  being  thrust  upon  him.  "I 
want  to  run  over  to  Warsaw  for  a  few  days. 
Do  you  not  think,  gentlemen,  that  I  have  earned 
this  brief  vacation1!" 

WThereupon  McKay  and  Sanchez  agreed  to 
attend  to  all  details,  making  it  necessary  only 
that  the  supposed  Egeloff  should  be  in  Ham 
burg  on  the  day  of  sailing.  So  was  Gard 
relieved  of  the  difficulty  and  danger  of  a  sus 
tained  masquerade  and  so  was  he  able  again  to 
get  in  touch  with  America.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
he  hurried  to  Paris.  There  he  found  Coleman, 
whom  he  had  known  before,  in  charge  of  the 
Paris  branch  of  his  own  service. 

"Dress  me  up  like  a  white  man,"  he  told 
Coleman.  "Lead  me  up  to  something  that 


64      UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

liuman  beings  eat.  Take  me  out  where  I  may 
try  the  experiment  of  attempting  to  be  a  gentle 
man  again.  I  am  by  no  means  sure  I  can  do  it. 
Four  days  from  now  talk  to  me  about  cipher 
messages,  but  not  until  then." 

But  when  Gard  returned  to  Hamburg  it  was 
understood  that  he  should  use  the  old  confeder 
ate  cipher  for  any  messages  that  he  might  be 
able  to  send.  This  is  a  simple  and  always  effi 
cient  cipher  made  up  of  a  square  of  the  letters 
of  the  alphabet.  One  begins  by  writing  the 
twenty-six  letters  in  a  row,  commencing  with  A. 
The  second  line  begins  with  B,  placed  directly 
under  the  A  of  the  first  line,  and  followed  by 
all  the  letters  in  order.  The  third  line  begins 
with  C,  the  fourth  with  D,  and  so  on  until  Z  is 
reached.  Any  amateur  may  build  up  his 
square  of  letters  in  this  way. 

There  must  be  a  secret  key  word  which  is 
known  to  the  senders  and  the  receivers.  The 
keyword  is  witten  out  repeatedly  and  the  mes 
sage  is  written  beneath  it.  Instead  of  using  the 
letters  of  the  message,  the  letters  of  the  key 
word  are  used.  This  is  the  first  puzzling  trans 
lation.  The  message  as  it  then  appears  is  taken 
te  the  square  of  letters.  In  writing  it  as  it  is 


ultimately  to  be  sent,  its  letters  are  found  in  the 
top  line  of  the  square  and  also  in  the  perpen 
dicular  line  that  runs  down  its  side.  The  lines 
of  letters  that  radiate  from  these  margins,  one 
horizontally  and  one  perpendicularly,  meet  at 
some  point  within  the  square.  The  letter  upon 
which  they  meet  is  used  in  the  message.  No 
one  in  the  world  without  his  square  of  letters 
and  without  the  keyword  can  read  this  mes 
sage. 

So  the  home  government  was  informed  that 
Special  Agent  William  H.  Gard  might  commu 
nicate  with  its  ships  by  means  of  the  confeder 
ate  cipher  and  that  the  keyword,  rather 
strangely,  was  "  Russian  whiskers."  The 
home  government  transmitted  this  information 
to  its  battleships  lying  off  Mexico  and  their 
operators  were  instructed  to  pick  up  any  wire 
less  that  might  come  to  them  out  of  the  Atlan 
tic. 

Gard  hurried  back  to  Hamburg  just  in  time 
to  sail  on  the  Esmiranga.  He  was  not  sure  but 
that  the  big  Russian  would  communicate  with 
the  Mexican  representatives  and  approached 
the  situation  he  had  developed  with  no  little 
misgiving.  It  appeared  that  his  conclusion 


66      UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

that  the  Russian  had  made  a  getaway  with  much 
swag  was  correct.  He  was  warmly  received  by 
both  McKay  and  Sanchez  and  the  ship  got  away 
with  but  one  difficulty  facing  the  special  agent. 
The  Mexican  consul  was  returning  to  his  native 
land  aboard  it. 

Gard  realized  that,  as  the  confidential  repre 
sentative  of  Huerta,  he  could  not  with  impunity 
have  anything  to  do  with  Sanchez,  as  that  vola 
tile  Latin  would  immediately  lead  him  into 
much  talk  of  Mexican  men  and  conditions. 
Gard  knew  almost  nothing  about  Mexico  City 
and  could  not  even  sustain  a  casual  conversa 
tion  on  that  subject. 

It  was  because  of  these  considerations  that 
the  apparently  genial  disposition  of  the  sup 
posed  purchaser  of  munitions  of  war  proved  a 
disappointment  to  Seiior  Sanchez.  This  Rus 
sian  was  evidently  no  sailor.  He  took  to  his 
cabin  as  soon  as  the  Esmiranga  took  to  sea. 
His  sea  manners  were  also  far  from  Latin  for 
he  answered  with  guttural  oaths  any  inquiries 
that  were  made  as  to  the  condition  of  his  health. 
He  seemed  to  have  gone  on  a  mad  debauch  and 
insisted  that  a  constant  procession  of  highballs 
be  sent  to  his  stateroom.  He  cut  Senoi  San- 


A  FIASCO  IN  FIREARMS       67 

chez  dead  when  he  met  him  on  the  deck. 
Caramba!  A  beast  of  a  man  was  this,  to  be 
shunned  as  the  plague ! 

The  captain  and  the  wireless  operator  were 
the  only  individuals  with  whom  this  disagree 
able  shipmate  had  anything  to  do.  To  the  cap 
tain  it  was  made  plain  that  a  delicate  situation 
existed  off  Mexico.  The  ships  of  those  pigs  of 
Americans  were  blockading  Vera  Cruz.  They 
might  blockade  but  they  had  no  right  to  stop  a 
German  ship  bound  for  that  port.  But  he  must 
talk  to  his  principals  in  Mexico.  There  was  the 
wireless  of  the  Esmiranga,  and  there  was  his 
secret  cipher  which  no  Yankee  could  read. 
Might  the  operator  handle  his  messages  ? 

To  be  sure.  The  representative  of  the  Mexi 
can  government  which  was  to  pay  handsomely 
for  the  transportation  of  the  cargo  aboard  the 
Esmiranga  might  do  entirely  as  he  wished. 

So  it  transpired  that  Special  Agent  Billy 
Gard  began  talking  to  the  American  battleships 
in  southern  seas  when  the  Esmiranga  was  not 
much  more  than  half-way  across  the  Atlantic. 
He  amused  himself  writing  messages  much  as 
a  man  passes  the  time  of  a  voyage  in  playing 
solitaire.  So  it  happened  that  the  United  States 


68      UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

Government  had  all  the  details  of  the  approach 
of  a  shipload  of  ammunition  of  American  origin 
destined  to  Huerta,  upon  whom  the  screws  were 
just  then  being  put  for  insulting  the  Stars  and 
Stripes.  So  it  was  evident  that  if  this  ammu 
nition  were  allowed  to  land,  it  might  be  used 
against  American  troops,  who  were  at  any 
moment  to  be  thrown  into  Mexico. 

Yet  the  United  States  might  not  prevent  a 
German  ship  from  entering  the  harbor  at  Vera 
Cruz.  The  only  method  of  stopping  that 
ammunition  was  to  seize  the  port  and  customs 
house  and  thereby  come  into  possession  of  the 
cargo  if  it  were  disembarked. 

The  wireless  of  the  Esmiranga  sputtered  out 
a  message  which,  when  interpreted  in  accord 
ance  with  the  confederate  cipher  and  the  key 
word  of  "Bussian  whiskers,"  conveyed  the 
information  that  the  vessel  was  approaching 
the  Mexican  coast  and  that  her  intention  was 
to  steam  under  the  very  noses  of  the  American 
dreadnoughts  into  port.  The  facts  were 
reported  to  Washington,  where  the  alternative 
of  seizing  the  port  was  sternly  faced.  Orders 
were  given  to  act. 

The  next  day  American  marines  went,  some 


A  FIASCO  IN  FIREARMS        69 

to  glory  and  some  to  death,  past  that  most  tragic 
spot  in  all  America,  the  fortress  prison  of  San 
Juan  de  Ullao;  into  those  streets  frequented 
by  the  sacred  scavenger  buzzard  of  the  Aztecs; 
beneath  the  walls  of  the  ancient  parochial 
church  beside  the  Plaza  de  la  Constitucion 
where  the  first  American  boy  was  destined  to 
die  at  the  hands  of  a  sniping  priest;  into  the 
gate  city  that  had  known  Cortez  and  Maximil- 
lian,  and  had  loaded  the  galleons  of  Spain  with 
more  silver  and  gold  than  had  ever  before 
been  amassed  anywhere  in  the  history  of  the 
world. 

But  the  Esmiranga  did  not  come  in  to  dis 
charge  her  ammunition  that  it  might  fall  into 
the  hands  of  the  Americans.  Instead,  it 
haunted  Mexican  waters  for  a  while  as  a  crea 
ture  of  unrest,  uncertain  where  to  land. 
Finally  it  put  into  Mobile,  where  its  captain 
was  left  at  a  still  greater  loss,  for  the  supposed 
Mexican  gun-runner  went  ashore  and  was  seen 
no  more.  Sanchez,  the  Mexican  consul,  left  by 
train  for  his  native  land.  Huerta,  in  the  mad 
ness  of  his  career,  extended  no  instructions. 

The  ultimate  disposition  of  the  Esmiranga' s 
cargo  completes  the  record  of  another  of  those 


70      UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

fiascos  in  the  game  of  pandering  to  revolution 
ists  in  Latin  America.  The  outcast  cargo 
knocked  about  the  Caribbean  for  a  while  like  a 
party  dressed  up  and  no  place  to  go.  The  con 
stitutionalists  came  into  possession  of  Tarnpico 
and  sought  a  way  to  deal  with  the  captain  of  the 
Esmiranga,  who  was  still  unpaid  for  transport 
ing  his  cargo  and  willing  to  listen  to  almost  any 
proposition.  But  the  constitutionalists  bought 
no  pigs  in  pokes  and  insisted  on  an  examina 
tion  of  the  cargo.  Probably  they  had  them 
selves  bought  of  Valentines  and  knew  the 
nature  of  his  stock  in  trade.  They  found  a  way 
to  open  some  of  the  boxes  and  there  discovered 
such  an  array  of  antique  armament  that  ever- 
they  scorned  its  use.  Valentines  and  the  Rus 
sian  who  came  to  New  York  to  buy  for  Huerta 
had  taken  no  pains  to  give  that  warlike  gentle' 
man  the  value  of  even  a  portion  of  his  money. 


IV 

THE   SUGAK   SAMPLERS 

ME.  GARD,"  said  the  chief,  "I  take  it 
you  would  like  to  earn  the  stipend 
the  Government  pays  you." 

"Your  lead  sounds  ominous,"  said  the  young 
special  agent,  who  had  a  free  and  easy  way  with 
him  even  at  the  Washington  headquarters. 
"If  I  say  yes,  you  will  hand  me  a  large  piece 
of  hard  work.  If  I  say  no,  I  will  be  courting 
discharge.  I  select  the  lesser  of  two  evils.  I 
confess  to  a  desire  to  earn  my  money." 

"It  is  like  this,"  said  the  chief.  "We  sus 
pect  that  there  is  a  leak  in  the  collection  of 
sugar  duties.  You  know  the  possibilities.  If 
a  ship  comes  to  port  with  10,000  tons  of  sugar 
from  Cuba,  it  pays  duty  that  depends  on  the 
purity  of  the  cargo.  If  that  sugar  is  graded  at 
92  per  cent,  pure  it  gets  in  a  half  cent  a  pound 
cheaper  than  if  it  is  graded  96  per  cent.  pure. 
The  difference  in  duty  received  by  the  Govern- 


L72      UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

ment  on  such  a  cargo  might,  theoretically, 
amount  to  $100,000." 

"If  I  catch  three  ships,"  mused  Gard  half  to 
himself,  "I  have  earned  my  salary  for  the  rest 
of  my  life  and  won't  have  to  work  any  more. ' ' 

"I  wouldn't  just  say  that,"  responded  the 
chief;  "but  if  you  saved  the  Government  half 
a  cent  a  pound  on  all  the  sugar  imported,  you 
would  bring  into  the  coffers  a  round  two  mil 
lion  a  year.  That  would  be  a  fair  accom 
plishment  for  a  somewhat  amateurish  detec 
tive." 

"Sustained  by  the  flattery  of  my  superior," 
said  Gard.  "I  am  ready  to  rush  into  any  mad 
undertaking.  What  are  the  orders'?" 

"You  will  be  assigned  to  one  of  the  great 
sugar  ports.  We  do  not  even  know  that  any 
fraud  is  being  practised.  You  are  to  find  out. 
If  there  is  fraud  you  are  to  determine  the 
method  of  it.  The  criminals,  particularly  the 
big  ones,  are  to  be  apprehended.  The  Govern 
ment  would  like  to  know  how  these  frauds  may 
be  prevented  in  future.  The  work  need  not  be 
completed  to-morrow  or  next  day.  You  may 
have  any  amount  of  help.  But  we  must  know 
that  sugar  duties  are  honestly  paid." 


THE  SUGAR  SAMPLERS        73 

It  was  a  week  later  that  William  H.  Gard  sent 
in  his  card  to  Henry  Gottrell,  president  of  the 
Continental  Refining  Company,  one  of  the 
greatest  importers  of  raw  sugar  in  the  nation. 
According  to  this  card  Gard  was  a  writer  of 
magazine  stories.  He  had  explained  in  asking 
for  an  interview  that  he  was  assigned  to  write 
an  article  on  "sugar  ships,"  which  should  be  a 
yarn  of  color  and  romance  in  a  setting  of  fact. 

When  the  special  agent  entered  the  office  of 
President  Gottrell,  large  and  florid  and  radiat 
ing  geniality,  he  found  his  plan  of  approach 
somewhat  interfered  with  by  the  presence  of  a 
third  party.  Seated  at  the  elbow  of  the  refiner 
was  one  of  the  most  striking  young  women 
he  had  ever  seen.  Corn-colored  hair  gone 
mad  in  its  tendency  to  curl  made  a  perfect 
frizzle  about  her  face.  A  flock  of  freckles,  each 
seemingly  in  pursuit  of  its  fellow  just  ahead, 
were  hurdling  the  bridge  of  a  somewhat  pug 
nose.  Blue  eyes  that  danced  and  a  mouth  that 
responded  to  the  racing  thought  of  an  active 
brain  gave  life  to  the  face.  And  as  she  arose 
the  slightest  movement  of  her  slim,  well-rounded 
form  suggested  fast  work  on  a  tennis  court. 

Henry  Gottrell  presented  his  daughter. 


74      UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

"She  always  looked  like  a  Swede,"  said  the 
big  man,  "so  we  call  her  Thelma. ' ' 

"And  Mr.  Gard,"  she  bubbled  forth,  "I  have 
so  wanted  to  know  what  a  writer  did  when  he 
goes  for  an  interview.  May  I  stay  and  see?" 

"It  will  destroy  the  romantic  illusion  if  you 
do,"  said  Gard.  "Are  you  willing  to  pay  the 
price?" 

"I  can't  believe  that,"  she  said.  "Do  let 
me  see  how  it  is  done !  Don't  leave  out  a  single 
thing." 

"The  interviewer  begins,"  said  the  special 
agent,  "by  seating  himself,  as  I  am  doing,  in  an 
uncomfortable  chair  which  has  been  arranged 
with  the  idea  in  mind  of  preventing  him  from 
staying  too  long.  The  gentleman  being  inter 
viewed  always  reaches  into  the  right-hand 
drawer  of  his  desk,  as  your  father  is  doing,  and 
produces  a  box  of  very  excellent  cigars.  Then 
the  interviewer  explains  the  idea  that  is  on  his 
mind  that  requires  elucidation.  Has  the  man 
being  interviewed  anything  on  hand,  already 
prepared,  that  covers  the  ground.  Maybe  he 
has  made  a  speech  at  a  convention,  or  some 
thing  of  that  sort.  The  idea  is  to  save  labor 
for  both.  Mr.  Gottrell  is  now  looking  for  the 


THE  SUGAR  SAMPLERS        75 

report  of  his  testimony  before  the  committee 
on  tariff  revision.  He  will  probably  produce 
three  reprints  that  will  contain  much  matter 
that  I  want.  I  ask  if  he  will  provide  a  conver 
sational  escort  to  conduct  me  over  one  of  his 
sugar  ships,  if  I  may  talk  to  his  captains.  He 
agrees.  You  see  him  doing  it.  The  interview 
is  at  an  end.  The  foundation  has  been  laid  for 
a  romance  on  l sugar  ships,'  the  same  having 
a  background  of  fact." 

"That  is  splendid,"  exclaimed  Miss  Gottrell, 
"  because  it  does  so  easily  a  thing  that  looks  so 
hard.  It  does  not  spoil  an  illusion  at  all.  It 
is  wonderfully  clever." 

It  was  in  this  way  that  Special  Agent  Gard 
got  an  opportunity  to  go  most  carefully  over 
the  docks,  through  the  warehouses,  into  the 
ships  of  the  Continental  Eefining  Company.  It 
was  in  this  way  that  he  was  enabled  to  ask 
many  questions  that  might  have  aroused  sus 
picion  had  he  been  there  in  any  other  guise  than 
that  of  a  writing  man.  It  was  in  this  way  that 
he  was  able  to  observe  rather  carefully  every 
process  of  the  transfer  of  a  cargo  of  sugar 
through  the  customs  house  at  which  the  Fed 
eral  Government  takes  its  toll. 


76      UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

All  the  time  the  special  agent  was  looking 
for  a  clue — was  bringing  an  incisive  mind  to 
bear  upon  the  problem  of  the  course  the  sugar 
took  and  the  possibility  of  fraud  at  each  step. 
He  spent  days  observing  the  methods  of  the 
weighers.  He  watched  every  detail  of  the 
transfer  of  cargo  from  ship  to  warehouse.  He 
loafed  about  the  sheds  where  the  samples  were 
taken — a  process  in  which  he  took  a  vast  inter 
est. 

Here  the  samplers,  Government  employees, 
ran  their  little  hollow  tubes  through  the  mesh 
of  the  sacks  that  contained  sugar.  The  tubes 
went  in  empty  but  came  out  full  of  that  which 
was  within.  This  constituted  the  sample  for  a 
given  sack.  Each  sample  was  made  into  a  lit 
tle  package,  carefully  labeled,  and  went  to  the 
Government  laboratory  to  be  tested.  The  duty 
on  the  sugar  coming  in  was  charged  according 
to  the  degree  of  purity  of  these  samples. 

It  was  here  that  Billy  Gard  picked  up  his  first 
clue.  He  noticed  a  peculiarity  about  the 
methods  used  by  the  samplers  in  inserting  their 
tubes  into  the  sacks.  They  were  always  run 
along  the  side  of  the  sack  and  never  plunged 
into  its  very  heart.  Tobin,  the  little  consump- 


JHE  SUGAR  SAMPLERS        77j 

tive,  sampled  in  this  peculiar  way,  as  did  the 
hammer-handed  Hansen  of  the  every-ready; 
scowl.  Yet  it  would  be  easier  to  take  the  sam 
ple  out  of  the  middle  of  the  bag.  Why  did  the 
samplers  skim  near  the  edge  ? 

Gard  took  this  question  to  the  Government 
laboratory,  but  found  no  ready  answer  to  it. 
He  procured  a  typical  sack  of  sugar  and  from  it 
took  two  samples — one  from  the  very  heart  and 
one  from  the  outside  rim.  These  he  had  tested 
in  the  laboratory.  That  from  the  middle  of 
the  bag  showed  a  degree  of  purity  3  per  cent, 
higher  than  that  from  the  outside.  The  impu 
rity,  the  report  stated,  was  in  the  form  of  water. 

Technical  men  were  set  to  work  to  determine 
through  many  experiments  the  difference  in  the 
grade  of  the  sugar  in  different  parts  of  the  bag. 
Finally  it  was  established  that  raw  sugar  has  a 
tendency  to  take  up  moisture,  and  that  that  por 
tion  of  it  which  is  exposed  does  so.  The  sugar 
near  the  ouside  came  in  contact  with  the  air 
which  contained  moisture,  while  that  on  the 
inside  did  not.  The  refiners  were,  of  course, 
aware  of  this  tendency.  But  the  important 
conclusion  from  the  viewpoint  of  Billy  Gard 
was  that  the  Government  samplers  were  doing 


78      UNCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

their  work  in  such  a  way  as  to  favor  the 
importers.  Here  might  be  a  leak  that  was  very 
important. 

William  H.  Gard,  special  writer,  that  day 
disappeared  from  the  sugar  docks  and  was 
never  seen  again.  Simultaneously  with  his  dis 
appearance  the  saloon  of  Jean  Flavot,  not  a 
block  and  a  half  distant,  acquired  a  new  cus 
tomer  in  the  person  of  a  roughly  dressed  young 
laborer  who  did  not  drink  as  heavily  as  some 
of  his  fellows,  but  was  none  the  less  willing  to 
buy  for  others.  But  what  was  vastly  more  in 
his  favor  in  the  eyes  of  Flavot  than  even  liber 
ality  was  the  fact  that  he  spoke  French.  Mon 
Dieu,  these  rough  Americans  who  knew  not  of 
the  blandishments  of  absinthe  and  drank  only 
the  whisky!  The  resort  keeper  and  the  new 
comer  held  them  in  common  contempt. 

The  special  agent  had  selected  the  resort  of 
Jean  Flavot  as  a  basis  of  operations  because 
it  was  the  place  most  frequented  by  the 
samplers.  He  wanted,  in  the  first  place,  to  find 
out  if  these  men  had  more  money  to  spend  than 
honest  men  of  their  salaries  should  have.  The 
individual  who  makes  illicit  money  usually 
spends  it  lavishly  and  it  should  therefore  be 


79 

easy  to  determine  if  the  samplers  were  being 
paid  to  be  crooked.  And  Gard,  after  two  weeks 
of  convivial  association  with  them,  was  rather 
thrown  back  upon  himself  when  he  found  that 
their  carousals  were  always  within  their  means 
and  that  money  was  scarce  among  them.  They 
were  evidently  not  being  bribed. 

That  he  might  get  on  a  more  intimate  basis 
with  these  samplers  Gard  went  to  work  as  a 
laborer  on  the  docks,  and  there  toiled  for  two 
months.  He  came  to  be  most  intimately  one  of 
them,  was  given  every  opportunity  for  observ 
ing  their  work,  was  even  intrusted  with  certain 
valuable  confidences  when  the  men  were  sober 
and  saw  his  way  toward  learning  more  by  asso 
ciating  with  them  when  they  were  in  their  cups. 

His  task  was  but  half  finished,  however,  when 
the  maiden  with  the  frizzy  hair  and  the  freckles 
came  near  upsetting  the  beans.  The  daughter 
of  the  president  of  the  company  had  played 
through  her  childhood  on  the  docks  and  about 
the  warehouse  and  was  not  yet  averse  to  climb 
ing  stacks  of  sugar  sacks  or  descending  into  the 
hold  of  the  ships.  So  it  happened  that  she 
often  visited  the  water  front,  and  Gard  had  at 
first  feared  he  might  be  recognized,  but  this 


80      UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

fear  wore  away  as  the  visits  were  repeated  and 
no  attention  was  paid  to  him. 

But  one  busy  day  he  was  carting  away  the 
sacks  of  sugar  that  were  being  unloaded  in 
packages  of  twenty  or  so,  slung  in  ropes  and 
lifted  by  mighty  derricks,  when  Miss  Gottrell 
strolled  down  the  docks  under  a  pink  parasol 
and  in  the  midst  of  an  array  of  fluffy,  spring 
ruffles  such  as  make  a  healthy,  wholesome  girl 
outrival  in  beauty  the  orchids  of  the  most  tropi 
cally  luxuriant  jungle. 

The  special  agent  had  always  liked  corn- 
colored  hair  and  freckles  on  the  nose  and  wor 
shiped  at  the  shrine  of  the  physically  fit. 
Besides  which  this  girl  had  enthusiasm  and 
intelligence  and  inspiration.  And  it  was 
spring  and  he  was  a  youngster  shut  off  from  his 
kind  and  lonesome.  He  had  thought  of  her  a 
lot  of  times  since  that  day  he  had  interested  her 
by  pretending  to  be  something  he  was  not. 
Now  he  rather  resented  it  that  she  should  be 
there  and  he  a  perspiring  laborer,  not  daring 
to  speak  to  her. 

And  just  at  that  time  something  very  start 
ling  happened.  The  great  crane  of  the  ship 
drew  another  load  of  sugar  from  the  hold  and 


swung-  it  majestically  over  the  dock.  In  doing 
so  it  described  a  great  sweep  in  reaching  the 
spot  where  it  was  to  be  deposited.  In  the  midst 
of  this  sweep  a  single  sack  of  sugar  slipped 
from  beneath  the  ropes  and  came  hurtling  out 
and  down  as  though  it  were  a  projectile  from  a 
sling. 

The  pink  parasol  was  standing  unconsciously 
with  its  back  turned  directly  in  the  course  of 
the  flying  bag.  The  vision  of  spring  beneath  it 
was  gazing  away  to  where  a  sail  was  just  taking 
the  fresh  breeze.  Billy  Gard  and  his  truck 
were  emerging  from  the  shed  for  a  new  load  of 
sugar.  And  here  was  a  young  man  quick  to 
act  and  with  a  training  that  enabled  him  to  do 
so  effectively. 

Three  strides  and  a  leap  into  the  air  were  all 
the  time  allowed.  But  this  was  enough  to  make 
it  possible  for  him  to  tackle  about  the  waist  the 
catapulted  sugar  sack,  much  as  he  had  often 
tackled  the  member  of  an  opposing  team  who 
tried  to  go  around  his  end  in  the  old  football 
days.  To  be  sure,  this  end  play  was  the  fastest 
he  had  ever  seen  and  resulted  in  a  good  spill, 
but  it  was  a  success.  The  pink  parasol  was 
•uninjured. 


82      UNCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

Thelma  Gottrell  came  to  a  realization  of  what 
had  happened  about  the  time  Gard  was  getting 
himself  to  his  feet.  She  ran  to  him  spontane 
ously  and  would  have  helped  him  to  rise  had  he 
shown  the  forethought  to  be  a  little  slower. 

"I  do  hope  you  are  not  hurt!"  she  began. 
"It  was  splendid— Oh!  What?  It  is  Mr. 
Gard,  isn't  it?  How  in  the  world—"  She 
stopped  in  consternation.  Billy  Gard  grinned 
foolishly. 

"Don't  give  me  away,"  he  pleaded  with  her. 
"It  is  a  very  great  secret  and  it  would  all  be 
spoiled  if  you  did.  A  writing  man  must  have 
color,  must  know  life,  you  know.  Please  don't 
spoil  my  chance  by  telling  a  single  soul  about 
it." 

"Since  you  have  probably  saved  my  life," 
said  she,  "it  would  not  be  grateful  of  me  to  deny 
any  wish  of  yours.  But  I  will  agree  not  to  tell 
only  on  one  condition.  You  must  promise  to 
come  to  me  and  let  me  hear  all  about  it  when 
it  is  over." 

"I  promise,"  said  Gard. 

"And  you  must  let  me  say  that  I  think  you 
are  wonderful  to  do  the  things  you  do,  and  that 
I  thank  you. ' ' 


83 

She  placed  her  dainty  glove  in  his  grimy 
workingman's  hand  for  a  moment  and  was 
gone. 


It  was  a  wild  Saturday  night  at  Jean  Fla- 
vot's.  The  occasion  of  the  celebration  was  the 
ending  of  the  season  on  the  sugar  docks.  For 
seven  months  in  the  year  the  Continental  Refin 
ing  Company  was  busy  with  sugar  that  poured 
in  upon  it  from  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico  and  Santo 
Domingo  and  other  lands  to  the  south.  Then 
there  was  a  period  of  five  months  when  there 
was  no  sugar  from  the  outside  and  refiners 
turned  their  attention  to  the  home-grown  crop. 

Those  men  who  had  worked  together  in  the 
camaraderie  of  the  docks  for  seven  months  this 
season,  and  perhaps  for  many  a  year  before, 
were  to-morrow  to  be  dispersed.  They  would 
be  scattered  about  at  many  places  and  would 
play  their  part  in  the  handling  of  the  raw  sugar 
that  came  from  the  canefields  of  Louisiana  and 
the  beet  lands  of  Colorado  and  Michigan. 
Most  probably  they  would  meet  again  on  these 
same  docks  five  months  later.  But  assuredly 
there  was  every  reason  why  they  should  end 
the  season  in  one  mad  carouse. 


84      UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

Billy  Gard  was  present.  Through  the  weeks 
that  had  passed  he  had  gradually  tightened  the 
net  that  revealed  to  the  Government  the  condi 
tions  that  existed  on  the  sugar  docks.  But  his 
case  might  still  be  strengthened,  for  he  wanted 
the  whole  story  from  a  man  who  participated 
in  the  irregularities,  and  in  such  a  way  that  it 
might  be  introduced  into  court  as  evidence. 
This  was  the  last  opportunity  and  the  special 
agent  hoped  that  the  story  might  be  told  to-night 
when  the  samplers  were  reckless  over  their 
liquor. 

Jean  Flavot  brought  whisky  and  beer  when 
the  big-fisted  Hansen  beat  upon  the  table. 
Billy  Gard  stood  upon  his  chair  and  drank  to 
the  time  when  they  would  all  get  together  again 
under  the  cobwebs  that  decorated  the  ceiling  of 
the  little  Frenchman.  He  led  three  lusty 
cheers  for  that  time,  for  none  was  so  abandoned 
on  these  occasions  as  the  youngster  who  had 
saved  the  president's  daughter.  And  Flavot 
and  Billy  interchanged  a  wink,  for  they  had  a 
secret  between  them.  Both  knew  that  the  bev 
erage  that  the  special  agent  drank  with  such 
recklessness  was  nothing  more  than  cold  tea, 
and  the  little  Frenchman  delighted  in  seeing 


,THE  SUGAR  SAMPLERS        85 

his  favorite  lead  these  American  pigs,  who 
knew  no  decency  in  drinking,  on  to  complete 
inebriety. 

But  Gard  had  a  secret  from  even  Flavot 
which  had  to  do  with  a  grimy  little  man  who  sat 
at  a  nearby  table  and  who  had  of  late  fre 
quented  the  place — a  seedy,  long-haired,  sallow 
man  who  worked  always  with  pencil  over  the 
manuscript  of  a  play  he  was  writing.  As  a  true 
genius  he  paid  no  attention  to  what  went  on 
around  him,  but  always  pored  over  his  pa 
pers. 

But  this  same  man  in  Washington  was  a  star 
stenographer  at  the  Department  of  Justice,  a 
dapper,  one-time  court  reporter,  the  man  who 
had  handled  the  listening  end  of  many  a  dicta 
graph  when  the  ways  were  being  greased 
between  men  in  high  places  and  the  penitentiary 
at  Atlanta. 

"And  you  samplers,"  Gard  was  saying, 
"where  can  I  meet  you  when  another  Saturday 
night  comes!" 

"Me  at  the  Bayou  Fouche  mills,"  said  Han- 
sen. 

"And  the  company  sends  me  to  Colorado  fof 
my  lungs,"  said  Tobin,  the  consumptive. 


86      UNCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

"And  I  keep  time  at  the  refinery,"  ventured 
"Fat"  Cunningham. 

"So  everybody  works,"  said  the  special 
agent.  "Uncle  Sam  does  not  care  if  he  lays 
good  men  off  half  the  time,  but  the  Continental 
people  take  care  of  the  samplers." 

"Good  is  the  reason  why  they  should,"  said 
the  consumptive  Tobin.  "Don't  we  save  them 
enough  money  in  the  way  we  take  the  sam 
ples?" 

"How  is  that?"  asked  Gard. 

"Look  here,  young  fellow,"  said  the  gruff 
Hansen,  "it  seems  to  me  that  you  are  a  good 
little  asker  of  questions.  Why  are  you  so  curi 
ous?  Maybe  you  are  a  secret  service  man, 
eh?" 

"Sure,"  said  Gard.  "I  am  Chief  Wilkinson 
himself. ' ' 

"Wilkinson,  nothing,"  said  Hansen.  "His 
name  is  Wilkie." 

"Wilkie,  your  eye,"  argued  the  special 
agent.  "Don't  you  suppose  I  read  detective 
stories?  His  name  is  Wilkinson." 

But  the  sampler  was  sure  of  his  facts  and 
the  apparent  error  of  the  other  man  disarmed 
him. 


THE  SUGAR  SAMPLERS        87 

"Well,"  he  said,  "as  you're  so  curious  and 
as  I  have  the  tip  that  you  are  to  be  a  sampler 
next  season,  I  might  as  well  put  you  wise.  We 
are  all  taken  care  of  by  the  refiners  because  we 
look  after  their  interests  on  the  dock. ' ' 

The  big  fellow  looked  carefully  about,  but 
there  was  nobody  near  except  the  frowsy  dra 
matist,  who  was  absorbed  in  his  manuscript. 
He  threw  off  another  big  drink  of  whisky  and 
with  it  all  discretion. 

"You  see,"  he  said,  "a  sampler  on  Govern 
ment  wages  would  be  in  a  pretty  fix  if  he  were 
let  out  after  seven  months  and  had  to  stand  a 
chance  of  loafing  for  five.  So  the  company 
passes  the  word  that  if  the  boys  do  the  right 
thing  they  will  be  given  work  during  the  off  sea 
son.  I  happen  to  know  Gottrell  himself  and  he 
takes  me  aside.  That  was  eight  years  ago. 

"  'Hansen,'  he  says  to  me,  'pass  the  tip  to  the 
boys  to  sample  right,'  he  says,  'and  there  will 
be  work  for  them  between  seasons.' 

"  'What  do  you  mean,  sample  right?'  I  says. 

"  'Well,'  he  says,  'a  wet  sample  may  mean 
she  grades  92  and  a  dry  one  that  she  grades  94. 
A  sampler  can  get  a  good  many  of  them  wet.  I 
don't  have  to  tell  you  how.' 


88      UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

"So  I  passed  the  word,"  continued  Hansen. 
"At  the  end  of  the  season  half  of  the  samplers 
were  offered  jobs  with  the  company.  It  was 
easy,  of  course,  for  them  to  find  from  the  rec 
ords  who  was  getting  wet  sugar.  Not  a  dry 
sugar  man  got  a  job.  You  ask  Tobiii.  He  was 
one  of  the  guys  who  held  out  for  honesty.  But 
it  was  a  hard  season  for  Tobin,  with  his  health 
bad  and  three  kids.  So  next  season  he  lined 
up.  So  did  most  of  them.  Inside  of  three 
years  there  was  not  a  sampler  on  the  dock  who 
was  not  taking  them  wet." 

"But  put  me  wise,"  said  Garcl.  "If  I  am 
going  to  get  a  sampler's  job  next  year  you  bet 
ter  pass  the  word  to  me  so  I  will  know  how  to 
hold  it." 

"I  guess  you  know  enough  about  raw  sugar," 
said  the  sampler,  "to  know  that  it  drinks  up 
moisture  like  a  sponge  when  it  gets  a  chance. 
Well,  they  are  not  careful  in  keeping  out  the 
damp  air  when  it  is  aboard  ship,  and  it  often 
comes  handy,  not  altogether  by  accident,  for  a 
sack  of  sugar  to  get  a  chance  to  lie  on  a  wet 
board.  The  sugar  on  the  outside  naturally  gets 
a  little  damp,  and  if  you  will  turn  a  sack  over 
you  may  find  a  wet  side  to  it.  The  first  lesson 


THE  SUGAR  SAMPLERS        89 

is  to  take  your  samples  from  the  wet  side  of  the 
sack  and  from  the  part  near  the  ouside. 

"But  maybe  the  sugar  has  been  kept  pretty 
dry.  Well  it  is  up  to  the  sampler  to  get  a  little 
moisture  into  his  tube.  If  it  is  a  warm  day  a 
few  drops  of  sweat  may  be  gathered  by  a  scrape 
of  the  back  of  your  hand.  Every  drop  is  worth 
its  weight  in  gold  a  hundred  times  to  the  refin 
ers.  It  would  surprise  you  to  learn  how  clev 
erly  the  sampler  learns  to  spit  a  bit  of  tobacco 
juice  into  his  tube.  You  have  worked  on  the 
docks  for  a  long  time.  You  never  saw  it  done, 
did  you?  But  they  were  at  it  all  the  time.  I 
bet  the  Government  has  paid  a  million  dollars 
for  tobacco  juice  in  the  last  ten  years.  Cun 
ningham,  here,  has  grown  fat  eating  tobacco." 

"But  does  everybody  on  the  dock  take  wet 
samples?"  asked  the  detective. 

"Surest  thing  you  know,"  said  Hansen. 
" Ask  them." 

"How  about  it,  Cunningham?"  queried  Gard. 

"I  need  the  work,"  said  the  fat  man. 

"And  you,  Tobin?" 

"I  held  out  a  year,"  said  the  little  consump 
tive,  "but  couldn't  afford  to  lose  my  job." 

All  the  others  present  pleaded  guilty. 


90      UNCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

11  Don't  you  fellows  get  anything  for  it  but 
a  little  off-season  work?"  asked  Gard. 

"Not  a  thing,"  acknowledged  Hansen  with 
a  huge  oath.  "We  certainly  sell  out  cheap  and 
the  company  makes  barrels  of  money  out  of 
the  bargain.  But  the  old  man  has  never  given 
us  a  look  in  on  any  of  it. ' ' 

The  dictagraph  stenographer  at  the  next 
table  had  caught  every  word.  He  was  in  a  posi 
tion  to  substantiate  the  testimony  of  Gard  who 
should  be  able  to  make  these  samplers  tell  their 
stories  in  court.  Soon  the  two  faded  away 
without  being  missed,  but  they  took  with  them 
a  complete  case  against  the  Government 
samplers  of  this  port  and  against  the  Continen 
tal  Kefining  Company  which  had  been  profiting 
through  their  shortcomings. 

It  was  a  month  later  and  Billy  Gard  had  com 
pleted  his  work.  He  had  gone  to  Henry  Got- 
trell  "cold  turkey,"  and  with  authority  from 
the  department.  He  had  shown  that  rotund 
and  genial  captain  of  industry  just  the  case  the 
Government  had  against  him.  With  him  he  had 
gone  over  the  record  of  the  business  of  the  re 
finers  since  that  period,  eight  years  previous, 


THE  SUGAR  SAMPLERS        91 

when  the  wet  sample  scheme  had  been  inaugu 
rated.  He  had  worked  out  an  estimate  of  the 
probable  duty  that  the  Government  had  lost 
during  that  time.  The  actual  loss  was  not,  of 
course,  as  great  as  the  theoretical,  for  many 
of  the  samples  were  of  necessity  honest.  Yet 
it  must  have  run  as  high  as  $600,000  as  a  short 
age  on  the  part  of  Gottrell  and  his  associates. 
Gard  indicated  the  possibility  of  the  success 
of  a  criminal  prosecution,  the  probability  of 
recovering  that  large  sum  of  money  through  the 
courts.  He  confessed  to  the  humiliation  of  the 
Government  that  so  many  of  its  employees  had 
been  false  to  their  trust.  He  even  granted  that 
the  Government  might,  under  the  circumstan 
ces,  feel  itself  somewhat  to  blame  for  the  con 
ditions  that  had  existed.  It  is  not  recorded 
whether  the  vision  of  a  girl  with  frizzly,  corn- 
colored  hair  came  into  the  mind  of  the  special 
agent  and  had  to  do  with  his  recommendations 
that  the  case  be  settled  out  of  court.  But  certain 
it  is  that  the  Government  authorized  him  to  pro 
pose  that,  if  the  company  should  pay  the  Govern 
ment  $600,000,  an  amount  it  would  be  just  able 
to  raise  and  escape  bankruptcy,  the  case  would 


92      UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

be  dismissed,  the  samplers  discharged,  and  a 
new  regime  inaugurated  in  which  the  Govern 
ment  would  take  pains  to  protect  itself. 

Upon  this  basis  the  case  was  settled.  Billy 
Gard  had  earned  his  salary. 

The  next  day  he  was  packing  up  at  his  hotel 
in  preparation  for  leaving  for  Washington 
when  there  arrived  by  messenger  a  little, 
square,  delicately  scented  envelope  which  he 
tore  open  somewhat  wonderingly.  Inside  he 
found  this  note : 

Father  has  told  me  all  about  it.  For  the  third 
time  let  me  say,  "Splendid!"  And  remember  that 
yon  promised  to  come  and  tell  me  about  it  when  it 
was  all  over. 

THELMA  GOTTRELL. 

Which  would  seem  a  perfectly  good  reason 
why  Gard  was  a  day  late  in  reaching  Washing 
ton. 


ILLY  GARD  was  jogging  comfortably 
from  the  station  to  the  Commercial 
hotel  in  the  carryall  which,  in  Eoyerton, 
still  afforded  the  only  link  between  those  two 
points,  when  pandemonium  broke  out  in  the 
slumbrous  streets.  He  met  its  forerunner  head 
on  not  two  blocks  from  the  station.  This  bolt 
that  had  launched  itself  from  the  clear  skies 
took  the  form  of  a  normally  dignified  family 
carriage  drawn  by  two  lean  bays.  But  the 
sedate  respectability  which  surrounded  this 
equipage  when  it  was  driven  by  its  proper 
owner,  President  Sissons  of  the  Eoyerton 
National  bank,  had  been  lost  in  the  madness  of 
the  present  exploit. 

For  the  lean  bays  were  now  extending  them 
selves  in  what  appeared  to  be  an  attempt  to 
break  all  speed  records  that  the  community 
had  ever  known.  The  dignified  carriage  was 


94      UNCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

careening  from  side  to  side  in  a  way  that 
threatened  its  overthrow  at  any  moment. 
Card's  first  impression  was  of  a  team  that  had 
broken  loose  from  a  hitching  rack  and  dashed 
away  uncontrolled.  But  as  it  flashed  past  him 
there  was  an  instant  in  which  the  actual  situa 
tion  was  photographed  upon  his  brain. 

For  this  team  was  not  without  a  driver.  He 
had  seen  the  form  of  a  slim  young  man  which 
leaned  far  out  over  the  dashboard — pale, 
refined  features  that  fitted  illy  into  a  scene  of 
such  vigorous  action.  But  what  was  more  sur 
prising  was  that  this  driver,  instead  of  attempt 
ing  to  restrain  his  horses,  was  every  moment 
lashing  them  into  new  exertions. 

" Homer  Kester,  as  I  live!"  ejaculated  the 
driver  of  the  carryall  in  consternation. 

"Who  is  Homer  Kester?"  asked  Gard. 

"The  cashier  of  the  bank,"  was  the  reply. 

Whereupon  the  young  special  agent  of  the 
Department  of  Justice  acquired  an  even  greater 
interest  in  the  situation  than  he  had  experienced 
before,  for  he  had  come  to  Koyerton  for  the 
purpose  of  making  inquiries  into  the  condition 
of  its  national  bank,  which  was  under  suspi 
cion. 


PSYCHOLOGICAL  SLEUTH     95 

Behind  the  fleeing  carriage  came  the  town 
constable,  who  had  evidently  appropriated,  for 
purposes  of  giving  chase,  the  first  horse  he  had 
found  by  the  side  of  the  street.  Others  had 
joined  in  the  pursuit  and  a  rabble  of  small  boys 
and  curious  townsmen  crowded  the  street. 
From  these  the  stranger  was  soon  able  to  gather 
the  story  of  what  had  happened  in  the  immedi 
ate  past. 

It  had  suddenly  developed  that  the  cashier 
was  short  in  his  accounts.  The  directors  had 
awakened  of  a  sudden  to  a  realization  that  the 
institution  over  which  they  presided  was  but  a 
financial  shell.  There  was  no  delay  in  the 
interest  of  expediency.  An  immediate  call  was 
sent  forth  for  the  constable.  The  young 
cashier  went  into  a  panic.  In  desperation  he 
rushed  from  the  back  door  of  the  bank,  cut 
loose  the  team  of  the  institution's  president 
which  stood  near,  leaped  in  and  fled  from  the 
danger  that  faced  him. 

It  would  have  appeared  that  such  a  procedure 
would  have  been  entirely  futile,  that  there 
would  have  been  no  question  of  the  apprehen 
sion  of  this  criminal.  Yet  such  was  not  the 
ease,  and  Homer  Kester  was  a  thorn  in  the  flesh 


90      UNCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

of  the  authorities  and  particularly  of  Special 
Agent  Billy  Gard  for  many  a  day.  For  he  ran 
his  team  two  miles  into  the  country,  abandoned 
it,  but  sent  it  still  adrift,  caught  a  cross-country 
trolley,  and  with  the  exception  of  a  single  fleet 
ing  moment,  was  not  again  seen  by  the  authori 
ties  for  a  year  and  a  half. 

Gard,  in  the  meantime,  was  faced  with  the 
immediate  problem  of  determining  the  nature 
of  the  crime  and  representing  the  United 
States,  that  justice  might  be  meted  out.  In  the 
course  of  which  work  he  developed  the  detail 
of  what  had  happened  to  the  lone  financial  insti 
tution  of  this  country  town  and  revealed  a 
method  by  which  a  single  depositor  had  filched 
it  of  its  funds  in  a  way  that  almost  amounted 
to  the  knowledge  and  consent  of  the  directors. 

The  trouble  was  all  caused  by  a  young  man 
by  the  name  of  George  D.  Caviness,  who  was 
born  with  a  peculiar  gift  of  inducing  his  asso 
ciates  to  perform  for  him  such  favors  as  were 
better  not  granted.  It  would  seem  that  he  had 
taken  for  his  model  in  life  the  monkey  (if  it  was 
a  monkey)  that  had  first  induced  the  cat  to  pull 
those  historical  chestnuts  out  of  the  fire.  But 
so  alluring  were  his  blandishments,  so  attrac- 


PSYCHOLOGICAL  SLEUTH     9? 

tive  his  personality,  so  popular  was  lie  socially, 
that  the  town  had  become  accustomed  to  for 
giving  his  transgressions  and  allowing  him  to 
have  his  way. 

The  father  of  George  D.  had  been  a  director 
of  the  Koyerton  National  bank  and  at  one  time 
a  man  of  means.  It  was  a  great  shock  to  the 
town  when,  three  years  earlier,  the  elder  Cavi- 
ness  had  blown  out  his  brains.  It  was  a  sur 
prise  to  his  associates  to  find  that  his  estate 
had  so  dwindled  that  there  was  almost  nothing 
left.  The  bank  was  directly  embarrassed, 
because  of  the  fact  that  the  younger  Caviness 
had  borrowed,  upon  his  father's  endorsement, 
$3,000  from  that  institution.  Knowing  the 
youngster  as  these  directors  did,  they  called 
him  on  the  carpet  and  asked  him  what  he 
intended  to  do  toward  making  good. 

"I  am  going  to  pay  these  notes  almost  imme 
diately,"  he  said  confidently.  "You  know  that 
I  am  now  the  local  representative  of  a  New 
York  insurance  company.  I  am  doing  a  great 
business.  In  fact,  I  can  promise  a  payment 
to-morrow." 

"But,"  urged  a  dierctor,  "your  personal 
account  is  also  overdrawn." 


98      UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

''That  will  not  be  necessary  any  more,"  said 
Caviness.  "I  am  now  on  a  firm  financial  basis. 
I  am  now  in  a  position  to  throw  new  business  to 
the  bank  instead  of  being  a  burden  to  it." 

With  these  assurances  the  directors  parted 
with  young  Caviness  on  the  friendliest  of  terms. 
They  wanted  to  believe  in  what  he  said,  as  this 
would  save  the  bank  money  and  themselves 
embarrassment.  Further  than  this  there 
seemed  nothing  that  could  be  done,  and  the 
boundless  optimism  of  the  young  man  created 
confidence. 

The  next  day  the  insurance  agent  deposited 
for  discount  a  sixty-day  note  for  $300,  given  him 
by  a  man  for  whom  he  had  written  a  policy.  He 
drew  $50  in  cash,  and  allowed  the  balance  to  be 
placed  to  his  credit.  The  directors  were 
encouraged.  The  insurance  man  continued 
such  operations,  much  of  his  paper  being  per 
fectly  good.  It  would  appear  that  he  was  on 
the  way  toward  clearing  up  his  affairs,  but  Cav 
iness  spent  much  money,  some  of  it  going 
toward  the  entertainment  of  sons  and  daughters 
of  the  directors.  If  they  stopped  him  at  any 
time  it  would  have  meant  the  absolute  loss  of 
the  amount  he  already  owed.  As  illogical  as  it 


PSYCHOLOGICAL  SLEUTH     99 

might  seem,  more  and  more  credit  was 
extended. 

In  addition  to  the  liberties  that  Caviness  thus 
took  with  the  directors  of  the  bank,  he  had  also 
established  a  sort  of  dominance  over  Homer 
Kester,  its  young  cashier.  The  dominant 
insurance  man  had  been  a  leader  among  their 
mutual  associates  from  youth,  was  the  social 
lion  of  the  town,  and  always  patronized  the 
cashier.  That  timid  youth  had  allowed  his 
friend  to  overdraw  his  account  when  his  father 
was  a  director,  and  it  therefore  seemed  safe. 
This  fact  made  it  easier  afterward  when  it  was 
unsafe. 

Finally  the  directors  awoke  to  the  fact  that 
George  Caviness  owed  the  bank  $10,000. 
Homer  Kester,  the  cashier,  so  reported.  The 
directors  were  appalled.  This  was  the  end. 

Caviness  was  contrite.  He  made  new  notes 
for  the  whole  amount.  These  would  at  least 
appear  in  the  assets  of  the  bank  when  the 
examiner  came  around.  He  promised  he  would 
in  future  deposit  only  cash  and  certified  checks. 
The  hope  of  recovering  some  of  the  money  led 
the  directors  to  keep  the  account  open.  There 
seemed  no  other  way. 


100     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

But  Kester,  the  cashier,  had  not  reported  all 
the  facts  with  relation  to  the  Caviness  accounts. 
The  checking  account  of  the  latter  was  at  this 
time  overdrawn  to  the  amount  of  $3,500.  The 
cashier  realized  that  he  had  been  personally  at 
fault  in  allowing  this.  He  had  confessed  his 
embarrassment  to  Caviness.  The  latter  had 
advised  that  the  cashier  juggle  the  accounts  in 
such  a  way  that  the  shortage  would  not  show, 
and  that  he  fail  to  report  it  to  the  directors. 

Arranging  the  accounts  was  easy.  As  a  mat 
ter  of  fact,  these  overdrafts  were  already  being 
hid  by  being  carried  on  the  books  as  cash.  The 
arrangement  had  become  necessary  upon  the 
occasion  of  a  recent  visit  of  a  national  bank 
examiner.  As  the  examiner  had  been  deceived, 
so  might  be  the  directors.  So  it  happened  that 
Caviness  was  $3,500  deeper  in  debt  than  the 
directors  knew. 

Billy  Gard  was  fascinated  in  developing  the 
psychology  of  the  case — the  manner  in  which 
this  prodigal  played  upon  the  cashier  and  the 
directors  to  his  advantage.  But  here  the  mis 
creant  had  come  to  the  end  of  his  string  with 
the  directors.  He  was  to  be  allowed  only  to 
pay  in  money.  But  with  the  cashier  the  situa- 


PSYCHOLOGICAL  SLEUTH    101 

tion  was  different.  Caviness  now  had  Kester 
in  his  control.  That  youngster  had  made  a 
false  report  to  the  examiner  and  the  directors. 
He  had  violated  the  law.  His  position,  even 
his  freedom,  depended  on  helping  Caviness  to 
make  good. 

"If  I  had  but  a  few  hundred  dollars,"  Cavi 
ness  told  Kester  when  they  met  surreptitiously 
to  talk  the  matter  over,  ''I  could  clean  up  the 
whole  amount.  I  have  a  most  unusual  business 
opportunity  in  Philadelphia.  You  must  let  me 
overdraw  just  once  more." 

"Not  a  cent,"  insisted  Kester.  "I  have 
already  let  you  ruin  me  and  the  bank.  I  will  go 
no  further." 

"If  you  don't,"  brutally  stated  the  insurance 
man,  "you  are  ruined  by  what  you  have  already 
done,  I  am  ruined,  the  bank  is  ruined.  This  is 
the  one  chance." 

In  the  end  he  went  to  Philadelphia  to  grasp 
this  one  chance.  Billy  Gard  acknowledged  that 
it  was  logical  that  the  cashier  should  allow  him 
to  do  so.  The  draft  that  Caviness  drew  was 
for  twice  the  amount  he  had  named  but  the 
harassed  cashier  could  not  bring  himself  to 
refuse  to  honor  it.  Caviness  had  proved  him- 


102     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

self  a  psychologist  again.  Two  days  later  a 
smaller  draft  came  but  with  no  line  of  explana 
tion.  The  chance  to  recoup  might  depend  upon 
this  money,  the  cashier  felt.  He  appreciated 
the  greater  chances  on  the  other  side  but,  hav 
ing  honored  the  larger  check,  he  could  not  turn 
down  the  smaller  one.  It  was  not  logic  that 
he  should  do  so.  As  the  days  passed  there 
came  other  drafts  for  always  smaller  amounts. 
There  was  still  no  report  from  Caviness.  Yet 
what  excuse  could  the  cashier  offer  himself  for 
refusing  these  small  drafts  when  he  had  hon 
ored  the  big  ones?  Finally  the  prodigal  drew, 
in  a  single  day,  forty  small  checks  ranging 
from  one  to  five  dollars. 

Despairingly  the  cashier  cashed  every  one. 

It  was  during  the  week  that  followed  that 
the  directors  had  precipitated  the  flight  of  the 
cashier.  Billy  Gard  found  the  whole  case  easy 
to  clear  up  with  the  exception  of  the  apprehen 
sion  of  the  two  men  who  had  been  the  instru 
ments  in  wrecking  the  bank. 

The  special  agent  had  little  doubt  of  his  abil 
ity  to  catch  Homer  Kester,  the  cashier.  There 
was  the  almost  infallible  theory  that  such  a 
fugitive  would  write  home.  There  was  but  the 


PSYCHOLOGICAL  SLEUTH    103 

necessity  to  wait  until  lie  should  do  so  and  the 
point  of  hiding  would  be  indicated  by  the  post 
mark.  There  was  no  need  of  haste  in  the  case 
of  Kester,  it  seemed,  but  Caviness  was  harder 
to  figure  out. 

Yet  just  the  reverse  proved  to  be  true. 
Gard's  theory  for  catching  a  man  of  the  Cavi 
ness  type  held  good,  while  on  the  fugitive 
cashier  he  absolutely  failed. 

In  Eoyerton  it  was  easy  to  find  many  inti 
mates  of  the  insurance  man.  From  these  it 
was  learned  that  the  spendthrift  often  visited 
Philadelphia  and  that  while  there  he  kept  fast 
company.  Some  of  the  young  men  of  the  vil 
lage  knew  of  the  places  he  frequented,  the  peo 
ple  who  were  his  friends. 

"Such  a  man,"  soliloquized  Billy  Gard, 
1 '  always  hides  with  a  woman. ' ' 

Whereupon  the  special  agent  returned  to 
Philadelphia  and  began  investigating,  one  after 
another,  the  resorts  and  the  sporting  friends  of 
the  missing  insurance  agent.  One  thread  after 
another  was  followed  to  its  end  until,  in  tracing 
a  certain  woman  to  Germantown,  the  special 
agent  met  with  a  result  and  a  surprise  that  was 
beyond  his  expectation. 


104     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

A  drayman  who  had  hauled  the  goods  and 
chattels  of  the  woman  he  was  tracing  had  given 
Gard  the  Gennantown  address.  It  was  eleven 
o'clock  on  a  sunshiny  morning  when  the  special 
agent  reached  the  address.  It  was  a  narrow 
house  in  a  closely  built  row  and  evidently  was 
rented,  each  floor  as  a  flat.  Gard  had  recon- 
noitered  front  and  back,  had  gossiped  with  the 
grocer  at  the  corner,  with  some  children  m  the 
street.  He  was  looking  for  an  opportunity  to 
approach  the  janitor  of  the  house  to  question 
him  informally,  wanted  to  talk  to  the  postman. 
Then  he  met  the  policeman  on  this  beat.  He 
had  asked  this  guardian  of  the  law  about  the 
occupants  of  the  flat  in  question  and  the  two 
men  were  drifting  idly  past  when  pandemonium 
broke  loose. 

Shriek  after  shriek  tore  its  way  through  the 
drawn  curtains  of  the  ground-floor  flat.  There 
was  the  crash  of  broken  furniture,  the  whack 
of  heavy  blows,  the  thud  of  falling  bodies.  The 
policeman  and  the  special  agent  ran  to  the  door 
of  the  house  to  which  the  former  put  his  shoul 
der  with  good  effect.  They  were  thus  let  into 
a  narrow  hall.  Off  of  this  were  the  doors  to  the 


PSYCHOLOGICAL  SLEUTH    105 

flat  through  which  the  noise  of  a  vast  disturb 
ance  continued  to  come.  It  required  the 
strength  of  the  two  men  to  break  through  the 
barrier,  and  some  delay  was  occasioned.  But 
when  the  door  was  finally  forced  it  was  a  wild 
scene  that  was  revealed. 

They  had  broken  into  the  sitting  room. 
Sprawled  across  its  floor  was  the  form  of  a  di 
sheveled  woman,  frowsily  blonde,  shapely,  clad 
in  a  dressing  sacque  and  evidently  unconscious. 
Chairs  were  upset,  tables  overturned. 

The  intruders  gave  but  a  hurried  glance  to 
this  apartment,  however,  for  the  action  of  the 
play  was  still  going  forward  and  might  be  seen 
through  the  torn  portieres  that  led  into  the 
adjoining  dining-room.  As  they  looked  the 
form  of  a  strong  young  man  fell  heavily  across 
the  dining-room  table,  felled  by  a  blow  from  the 
stout  stick  of  a  slim  antagonist.  The  wielder 
of  the  stick  shifted  his  position  and  Billy  Gard 
got  a  view  of  his  face,  lividly  white,  delicately 
chiseled  and  refined  in  appearance.  It  seemed 
illy  to  fit  into  this  chaotic  scene.  Yet  the  spe 
cial  agent  knew  he  had  seen  it  before  and 
instantly  the  photographic  flash  of  such  a  face 


106     UNCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

bending  over  the  dashboard  of  a  madly  plung 
ing  carriage  returned  to  his  consciousness.  It 
was  the  face  of  Homer  Kester. 

Billy  Gard  had  often  had  occasion  to  be 
vastly  surprised  by  the  unexpected  vigor  and 
prowess  of  mild  and  law-abiding  men  when 
plunged  by  circumstances  into  the  realms  of  the 
lawless.  He  had  therefore  not  been  greatly 
surprised  when  the  young  cashier  had  made  his 
wild  ride  to  freedom.  But  as  the  aggressive 
wielder  of  a  heavy  stick  that  had  beaten  his 
antagonist  into  unconsciousness — this  was 
indeed  a  militant  role  to  be  played  by  the  inof 
fensive  former  cashier.  That  young  man  evi 
dently  had  qualities  that  had  not  been  attrib 
uted  to  him. 

Gard  knew  instantly  that  the  man  stretched 
across  the  dining-room  table  was  Caviness,  the 
bank  wrecker.  The  policeman,  true  to  his 
training,  rushed  into  the  affray  that  it  might 
be  stopped  and  the  participants  placed  under 
arrest.  The  wielder  of  the  heavy  stick  turned 
toward  the  door,  took  in  the  situation  in  a 
glance  and  fled  toward  the  back  of  the  house. 
As  in  his  escape  from  Eoyerton,  all  the  luck 
broke  with  him.  As  he  dashed  into  the  kitchen 


PSYCHOLOGICAL  SLEUTH     107 

lie  slammed  the  door  behind  him.  It  was  prob 
ably  all  chance  that  the  latch  was  so  set  that  the 
door  locked,  and  the  officer  was  delayed  in 
breaking  it  down.  From  the  back  steps  of  this 
ground-floor  flat  to  an  alley  was  but  twenty 
feet.  When  the  officer  gained  those  steps  he 
but  looked  into  a  blank  board  fence  in  which 
there  appeared  another  closed  door.  He  rushed 
to  this,  flung  it  open,  looked  out.  There  was 
not  a  soul  in  sight.  The  police  of  Philadelphia 
lost  track  of  Homer  Kester  when  he  slammed 
the  flat  door  in  the  face  of  this  member  of  its 
Germantown  staff.  The  prowess  of  the  Fed 
eral  agents,  represented  by  William  H.  Gard, 
one  of  its  best  men,  was  also  ineffective  in 
tracing  the  fugitive  farther  than  to  a  railway 
station  where  he  took  a  west-bound  train. 

It  was  more  than  a  year  after  this  and 
George  D.  Caviness  was  serving  time  in  the 
Federal  penitentiary  at  Atlanta.  Billy  Gard 
had  been  working  hard  on  many  other  cases  that 
had  intervened  and  the  tracing  of  Homer  Kes 
ter  had  been  allowed  to  rest.  It  is  the  motto  of 
the  Federal  detectives,  however,  that  a  case  is 
never  abandoned,  and  now  Gard  was  back  upon 
the  old  task  of  catching  the  fugitive  cashier. 


108     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

His  decks  were  otherwise  clear  and  his  instruc 
tions  were  to  get  his  man. 

Gard  locked  himself  up  with  the  Kester  case 
for  three  days.  He  read  the  records  of  it, 
reviewed  his  personal  knowledge,  got  together 
every  scrap  of  information  that  had  any  bear 
ing  upon  the  character  of  the  fugitive.  He 
wanted  to  know  exactly  what  sort  of  young 
ster  Kester  was,  he  wanted  to  place  himself  in 
that  youngster's  place  and  attempt  to  deter 
mine  what  he  would  have  done  under  the  cir 
cumstances.  It  is  a  method  that  has  been 
used  by  a  few  detectives  with  very  great  suc 
cess.  But  it  is  only  the  occasional  man  who 
is  so  human  that  he  may  discard  his  own  per 
sonality  and  appreciate  the  course  that  would 
be  taken  by  another,  who  may  thus  get  results. 

In  Kester  he  had  a  youth  of  twenty-four 
who  had  been  born  and  reared  in  Royerton,  had 
rarely  been  away  from  that  town,  had  no 
interests  out  of  it.  He  was  a  young  man  of 
good  character,  had  demonstrated  certain 
strokes  of  boldness  and  action.  He  had  a 
mother  and  father  and  two  sisters  living  in 
Koyerton. 


PSYCHOLOGICAL  SLEUTH     109 

It  appeared  that  Kester  had  fled  and  that 
he  had  cut  all  ties  behind  him — that  he  had 
left  town  and  had  never  communicated  with 
his  relatives  or  friends.  While  Gard  had 
been  off  the  case  a  vigilant  watch  had  none- 
the-less  been  kept  upon  all  letters  arriving  in 
Koyerton  that  might  possibly  be  from  the 
fugitive.  No  letters  had  come. 

"Now,  Gard,"  said  the  detective  to  himself, 
"were  you  a  youngster  of  this  training,  living 
thus  in  Koyerton,  surrounded  by  a  family  to 
which  you  were  devoted,  with  no  interests  in 
the  world  outside,  with  a  certain  element  of 
boldness  in  your  nature;  if  under  these  cir 
cumstances  you  got  into  trouble,  would  you  run 
clear  away  and  never  communicate  with  your 
people!" 

"No,"  he  answered,  transported  back  the 
few  years  that  separated  him  from  the  inex 
perience  of  twenty-four.  "I  could  not  break  so 
easily  from  my  dependence  upon  my  family  and 
the  only  world  I  had  ever  known. ' ' 

"And  if  you  were  thus  thrown  upon  your  own 
resources  in  the  big  outside  world  and  had  no 
money,  and  if  you  had  the  additional  handicap 


110     UNCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

of  having  to  keep  in  hiding — would  you  be  able 
to  face  a  proposition  like  this  and  still  not  call 
for  help  from  your  people  1 ' ' 

"No,"  again  answered  the  hypothetical 
youngster.  "I  would  hide  and  find  a  way  to 
get  money  and  news  from  home." 

So  the  detective  reached  the  conclusion  that 
Kester  was,  in  all  probability,  communicating 
with  his  relatives.  It  was  evident  that  he  was 
not  writing  home.  Too  close  a  watch  could  be 
kept  on  letters  coming  to  a  small  town  for  any 
of  his  people  or  their  confidential  friends 
to  be  receiving  them  without  the  knowledge  of 
the  special  agents  who,  through  the  postmas 
ter  and  letter  carriers,  had  been  steadily  watch 
ing  this  means  of  communication. 

So  the  conclusion  was  reached  that  Kester 
was  getting  messages  to  his  people  through 
some  other  means  than  the  mails,  in  all  proba 
bility  through  a  confidential  messenger.  To  do 
this  he  must  be  near  by.  He  could  hide  to  best 
advantage  in  a  city.  Philadelphia,  Pittsburgh, 
Baltimore  were  in  a  convenient  radius.  The 
detective  drew  the  conclusion  that,  were  he  in 
the  boots  of  the  fugitive,  he  would  have  taken 
refuge  in  one  of  these  cities;  that,  had  he  not 


been  willing  to  risk  the  mails,  which  Kester  evi 
dently  was  not,  he  would  have  used  some  trusty 
go-between  and  through  that  agency  would  have 
learned  the  news  from  home  and  received  from 
his  relatives  the  money  upon  which  to  live. 

Upon  the  basis  of  this  theory  Billy  Gard 
asked  himself  more  questions. 

"Were  I  hiding  under  such  conditions  whom 
would  I  use  as  a  messenger!" 

A  faithful  former  servant  who  might  be  liv 
ing  there,  a  distant  relative,  some  individual 
hired  for  the  task.  There  were  not  so  many 
possibilities.  They  might  be  exhausted  in  a 
few  weeks'  investigation.  Was  there  not,  how 
ever,  a  shorter  road  to  results? 

"If  I  were  in  this  lad's  place,"  the  detective 
again  queried  introspectively,  "what  would 
make  me  write  home?" 

"Obviously  nothing  would,"  came  the 
answer,  "so  long  as  I  could  communicate 
through  the  safer  medium  of  a  trusted  messen 
ger.  ' ' 

"But  if  the  messenger  were  an  impossibility, 
would  I  write  1 ' ' 

This  query  the  detective  had  some  difficulty 
in  answering.  He  brought  himself  to  experi- 


112     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

ence  the  lonesomeness  and  homesickness  of  the 
fugitive,  the  lad  whose  whole  life  interest  was 
wrapped  up  in  the  little  circle  in  which  he  had 
moved.  At  the  same  time  he  appreciated  the 
fugitive's  proven  fear  of  the  mails  and  his 
avoidance  of  them  so  far. 

But  for  the  sake  of  laying  down  a  basis  for 
action  Detective  Billy  Gard  granted  that  he 
would  write  if  lie  could  not  communicate  other 
wise.  If  this  were  admitted  what  was  to  be 
done!  Obviously  the  former  methods  of  com 
munication  should  be  cut  off. 

How  could  this  be  done  1 

The  messenger  method  of  communication  was 
possible  only  because  the  fugitive  was  near 
home.  If  he  were  far  away  it  could  not  be 
used.  If  he  were  far  away  he  would  also 
feel  an  added  degree  of  security.  A  worldly 
fugitive  would  not,  but  Kester  would.  With  a 
continent  between  him  and  his  crime  the  man 
who  had  always  lived  in  this  narrow  sphere 
would  not  appreciate  the  possibilities  of  his  cap 
ture.  He  would  write. 

Special  Agent  Billy  Gard  was  quite  sure  of 
this.  He  would  have  done  it  himself  at  twenty- 
four.  The  runaway  cashier  should  be  captured 


PSYCHOLOGICAL;  SLEUTH   us 

by  being  caused  to  flee  thousands  of  miles  fur 
ther  away. 

Having  reached  this  conclusion  the  special 
agent  called  Police  Sergeant  Flaherty  on 
the  telephone.  Would  Flaherty  come  to  see 
him?  Flaherty  would  be  there  in  fifteen  min 
utes. 

Now  Gard  knew  that  Flaherty  had  grown  up 
in  the  little  town  of  Royerton.  His  folks  lived 
there  and  Flaherty  occasionally  went  back  for 
a  visit.  The  Irishman  was  a  trustworthy  guar 
dian  of  the  law  and  might  be  depended  upon  to 
carry  out  orders. 

"Flaherty,"  said  the  special  agent,  " would 
you  like  to  take  a  bit  of  a  trip  to  Eoyerton  over 
Sunday  and  see  your  folks,  with  all  expenses 
paid?" 

''Would  I  eat  a  Dago's  apples  when  I  was 
hungry  f ' '  said  the  policeman. 

"Well,  here  is  the  lay  of  the  land,"  Gard 
explained.  "I  am  after  that  fugitive  cashier, 
Kester,  and  I  am  going  to  get  him.  He  is  not 
far  from  home  and  his  folks  are  in  communica 
tion  with  him.  I  want  them  to  know  that  I 
am  after  him.  They  will  tell  him,  will  supply 
him  with  a  bundle  of  money  and  he  will  not 


114     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

stop  running  until  he  reaches  Arizona.  Then 
I  will  get  him. ' ' 

"Them  are  not  police  methods,"  said  Fla 
herty.  ' '  I  am  not  catching  this  dip,  but  when  I 
do  pinch  them  it  is  usually  hy  getting  close  to 
them." 

"I  like  to  catch  them  on  the  wing,"  said 
Gard.  "Anyway,  you  have  merely  a  speaking 
part.  Your  talk  is  to  the  home  folks,  to  the 
effect  that  I  am  hot  on  the  trail  of  Homer  Kes- 
ter  and  likely  to  nab  him  at  any  moment.  Go 
talk  your  head  off." 

Whereupon  the  policeman  from  Koyerton 
spent  the  week-end  at  that  village,  had  a  good 
time  and  passed  the  word  of  warning. 

Billy  Gard  waited  ten  days. 

At  the  end  of  that  time  he  was  called  on 
the  telephone  by  the  postmaster  at  Royerton. 
A  letter  had  come  to  a  sister  of  Homer  Kester 
and  in  that  young  man's  handwriting.  It  was 
postmarked  "Spokane,  Washington." 

Gard  despatched  a  long  telegram  in  code  to 
the  special  agent  of  the  Department  of  Justice 
nearest  Spokane,  he  being  located  in  Seattle. 
He  asked  that  officer  to  run  over  to  Spokane  and 
pick  up  his  man.  It  was  merely  the  task  of 


PSYCHOLOGICAL  SLEUTH     115 

locating  a  well-described  stranger  in  a  compara 
tively  small  city.  Two  days  later  the  Depart 
ment  was  informed  of  the  arrest. 

"Psychology,"  said  Billy  Gard  rummatively, 
'4s  a  great  help  to  a  detective — when  it  works." 


"ROPING"  THE  SMUGGLERS  OF  JAMAICA 

SPECIAL  AGENT  BILLY  GABD  sat  in 
the  cafe  of  Fun  Ken,  that  wealthy  Ori 
ental  who  had  pitched  his  resort  among 
the  ferns  of  the  Blue  Mountains  which  look 
down  upon  Kingston,  the  capital  city  of  the 
tropical  and  flowery  island  of  Jamaica.  Many 
drowsy  afternoons  had  he  spent  here  with 
orange  juice  and  a  siphon  at  his  elbow  and  the 
best  of  Havanas  in  his  teeth.  For  Billy,  in  the 
opinion  of  every  man  he  met  in  the  islands, 
with  the  single  exception  of  the  American  con 
sul,  was  a  retired  manufacturer,  with  money  to 
spend  and  time  hanging  heavily  on  his  hands. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  his  table  at  the  cafe  was 
chosen  because  it  gave  him  an  opportunity  to 
observe  Fun  Ken  and  his  satellites,  whom  he 
suspected  of  being  a  part  of  a  huge  conspiracy 
for  the  smuggling  of  opium  and  Chinamen  into 
the  States. 

116 


"ROPING"  THE  SMUGGLERS     117 

This  afternoon  he  had  thus  silently  gained  a 
reaffirmation  of  his  belief  that  Fun  Ken  was  a 
part  of  the  organization  with  which  he  had 
already  associated  Wilmer  Peterson,  whose 
acquaintance  he  had  been  cultivating.  He  had 
seen  Peterson  alight  from  the  electric  car  that 
passed  the  door.  The  American  had  gone 
through  the  cafe  and  out  at  the  back.  Fun  Ken, 
who  was  at  the  time  presiding  at  the  cashier's 
desk,  had  immediately  disappeared.  Half  an 
hour  later  Fun  Ken  was  again  on  the  cashier's 
stool  and  Peterson  shortly  thereafter  returned 
to  the  cafe.  This  occurrence  had  been  wit 
nessed  for  three  days  in  succession  by  the  spe 
cial  agent,  who  regarded  it  as  a  convincing 
indication  of  collusion  between  these  two  men. 

Of  Peterson's  operations,  Gard  already  had 
absolute  proof.  This  he  had  gained  at  Port 
Antonio,  the  shipping  point  for  fruit  at  the 
other  end  of  the  island.  He  had  been  sent  to 
the  Caribbean  because  of  the  difficulty  the 
United  States  was  having  in  preventing  the 
smuggling  of  opium  and  of  Chinamen  not 
legally  entitled  to  enter  the  country. 

It  was  suspected  that  Jamaica  was  the  base 
of  operations  for  these  smugglers,  and 


118     UNCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

Government  wanted  to  understand  the  case 
from  the  inside. 

Gard  assumed  the  role  of  a  retired  glass 
manufacturer  who  had  time  to  lounge  the  win 
ter  away  about  the  southern  seas.  For  two 
weeks  he  had  luxuriated  about  the  Hotel  Titch- 
field,  in  Port  Antonio,  and  changed  his  clothes 
oftener  than  any  Englishman  in  the  place. 
There  he  had  noted  the  clumps  of  idle  Chi 
namen  who  made  headquarters  near  the  wharf, 
and  the  occasional  stealthy  American  who  was 
particularly  in  evidence  when  there  were 
freighters  in  the  harbor. 

Gard  soon  became  a  familiar  figure  about  the 
hotel  lobby  and  bar-room,  where  he  spent  money 
freely.  Likewise  was  his  boat  to  be  seen  on  the 
bay  for  many  hours  of  the  day,  for  he  made 
rowing  his  diversion. 

"Don't  buy  drinks  for  that  bunch,  Mr. 
Gard,"  Hogan,  the  bartender  at  the  Titchfield, 
admonished  him.  "They  are  nothing  but  a  lot 
of  smugglers.'* 

This  was  his  first  lead.  That  night  Gard 
rowed  late  on  the  bay,  skirted  a  banana  boat 
that  lay  tied  to  the  wharf  and  scrambled  up 
unseen  to  a  side  door  of  the  customs  house.  To 


"ROPING"  THE  SMUGGLERS     llflj 

this  door  lie  had  a  key.  He  let  himself  in. 
Where  the  customs  house  faced  the  wharf  were 
large  double  doors  through  which  freight  might 
be  taken  directly  to  the  boat  tied  there.  The 
special  agent  unlocked  these  doors  and  made  a 
crack  just  large  enough  for  observation  and  for 
eavesdropping,  but  still  so  small  as  not  to 
attract  attention  from  the  outside.  Here  h# 
waited  from  eight  to  eleven  o'clock. 

In  the  stillness  of  this  late  hour  the  skipper 
of  the  banana  boat  and  Peterson,  the  smuggler, 
held  a  conference. 

"I  have  room  for  ten  men,"  said  the  skipper. 

"I  have  the  men  ready  to  come  aboard,"  said 
the  smuggler. 

"And  the  money?"  suggested  the  man  of  the 
seas. 

' '  The  cash  is  ready ;  $150  for  each  man  when 
he  is  stowed  away.  You  will  land  them  at 
Mobile." 

"At  Mobile,"  assented  the  captain. 

"See  me  next  trip  at  Kingston,"  said  the 
smuggler.  "I  leave  for  that  point  in  the  morn 
ing." 

Thus  was  gained  the  first  peep  into  the 
methods  of  the  smugglers.  Gard  reported  to 


120     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

the  American  consul,  who  sent  a  message  that 
would  result  in  the  seizure  of  the  banana  boat 
when  it  reached  Mobile. 

The  special  agent  now  had  the  thread  of  his 
work  well  in  hand.  His  intentions  were  to  get 
at  the  very  bottom  of  the  affair,  however,  and 
not  merely  to  apprehend  an  individual  like 
Peterson.  That  gentleman  should  be  induced 
to  show  the  way.  Peterson  should  be  ' '  roped. ' ' 
That  most  effective,  yet  most  difficult  task  of 
working  into  the  confidence  of  a  culprit  and 
inducing  him  to  lay  his  cards  on  the  table, 
should  be  employed. 

It  was  with  this  idea  in  mind  that  Gard  came 
down  to  breakfast  early  the  next  morning,  but 
not  so  early  that  Peterson  was  not  there  ahead 
of  him.  He  sat  opposite  his  man.  The  spe 
cial  agent  kept  looking  at  his  watch  apprehen 
sively,  and  finally  asked  the  man  opposite  if  he 
knew  what  time  the  train  left  for  Kingston. 

"At  eight-thirty,"  said  Peterson.  "There  is 
plenty  of  time.  I  am  going  over  on  that  train 
myself. ' ' 

This  opened  the  conversation,  and  placed 
Gard  in  the  position  of  having  first  indicated 


"ROPING"  THE  SMUGGLERS     121 

his  intention  of  making  the  trip.  He  had  said 
he  was  going  before  he  seemed  to  know  that 
Peterson  had  any  such  intention.  These  small 
matters  are  of  great  importance  in  laying  the 
foundation  for  getting  your  man.  They  talked 
through  the  meal.  It  was  but  natural  when,  at 
8 :15,  Gard  appeared  with  his  grip  and  started 
to  enter  his  cab,  that  he  should  ask  Peterson, 
who  was  just  then  ready  for  departure,  to  join 
him. 

At  the  station  the  smuggler,  as  a  return 
favor,  advised  Gard  not  to  purchase  a  ticket, 
as  one  could  ride  for  half  the  fare  by  handing 
the  cash  to  the  conductor.  Gard,  however, 
declined  this  opportunity  to  save  money,  for  he 
was  looking  to  the  future  and  the  necessity  of 
establishing  himself  in  a  given  light  with  this 
stranger. 

Peterson  asked  his  companion  as  to  the  hotel 
to  which  he  was  going  in  Kingston. 

1  'The  Myrtlebank,"  said  Gard. 

"It  will  cost  you  six  dollars  a  day,"  said  the 
smuggler.  "Come  with  me,  and  I  will  show 
you  as  good  accommodations  for  three." 

A  detective  less  experienced  in  roping  might 


122     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

have  considered  an  opportunity  to  go  to  this 
man 's  hotel  with  him  as  a  piece  of  good  fortune. 
Gard  declined  the  invitation. 

"No,"  he  said.  "The  expense  is  of  little 
importance  to  me.  I  shall  stay  at  the  Myrtle- 
bank.  "Won't  you  take  dinner  with  me  there 
to-night!" 

Peterson,  being  what  the  English  call  a 
"bounder,"  was  impressed  by  his  friend's  dis 
regard  for  money,  and  eagerly  accepted  all  his 
invitations  to  share  a  more  expensive  hospi 
tality.  So  was  the  atmosphere  created  for 
which  the  detective  was  striving. 

The  two  men  spent  much  time  together. 
They  automobiled  about  the  city  and  dined  at 
the  resort  of  Fun  Ken,  back  in  the  hills.  The 
man  who  claimed  to  be  a  retired  glass  manu 
facturer  seemed  to  be  a  careless  sort  of  indi 
vidual,  with  a  disregard  of  how  he  spent  his 
time.  He  was  rather  indifferent  of  his  associ 
ates,  it  seemed,  and  inclined  toward  those  whose 
lives  were  free  and  easy.  He  was  the  last  man 
in  the  world  to  appear  to  have  any  interest  in 
jthe  activities  of  his  fellows,  or  to  care  whether 
their  means  of  livelihood  was  honest  or  not- 
He  was  the  source  of  a  great  deal  of  satisfaction 


"ROPING"  THE  SMUGGLERS    123 

to  Peterson,  who  was  often  embarrassed  by 
inquiries  into  his  occupation. 

And  all  the  time  Gard  was  picking  up  the 
details  of  the  operations  of  the  smugglers.  It 
was  through  the  negro  boy  who  waited  on  him 
at  the  hotel  that  he  learned  of  an  opium  ship 
ment.  The  boy  had  overheard  the  conversation 
that  gave  him  the  information,  and  told  of  it 
amusingly  in  the  cockney  English  of  the  Jamai 
can  negro. 

Sing  Foo  was  the  moving  spirit  from  the  Chi 
nese  end  in  these  smuggling  operations.  He 
was  a  more  important  man,  in  fact,  than  was 
Fun  Ken,  who  ran  the  resort  on  the  hill.  Sing 
Foo  was  a  wealthy  merchant  with  a  large  estab 
lishment  in  the  center  of  the  Kingston  China 
town.  Gard  had  been  studying  his  establish 
ment.  The  strange  thing  .about  it  was  that 
there  were  constantly  two  or  three  hundred  idle 
Chinamen  in  its  vicinity.  The  presence  of  Chi 
namen  not  at  work  is  a  condition  so  peculiar  as 
to  require  an  explanation.  But  with  the  smug 
gling  theory  in  the  back  of  one's  head,  it  was 
easy  to  conceive  that  these  superfluous  Mongo 
lians  were  waiting  an  opportunity  to  be  shuttled 
into  the  United  States. 


124.     UNCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

The  smuggling  of  opium  and  of  Chinamen 
was  known  to  go  hand  in  hand.  Sing  Foo, 
according  to  the  negro  boy,  had  arranged  a  ship 
ment  of  opium  to  Philadelphia.  A  French- 
American  named  Flavot,  whom  Gard  had  met 
through  Peterson,  had  been  the  intermediary. 
The  captain  of  a  tramp  copra  trader  was  to 
carry  it.  It  was  to  be  snugly  hidden  and,  when 
the  steamer  docked,  nothing  was  to  be  done 
immediately  about  it. 

Presently  a  large  negro  wearing  a  linen  ulster 
would  come  aboard  under  the  pretext  of  doing 
some  sort  of  work  about  the  ship.  This  negro 
was  to  be  shown  the  opium.  He  would  carry  it 
out  a  few  boxes  at  a  time. 

Gard  cabled  his  home  office  the  details  of  this 
deal  in  opium  introduction.  He  advised  that 
nothing  be  done  until  the  negro  went  aboard, 
actually  carried  out  the  stuff  and  was  followed 
to  his  principal.  There  was  a  slip  in  Philadel 
phia,  however;  the  captain  got  suspicious  and 
the  opium  was  thrown  into  the  river. 

Two  months  passed  in  this  way.  All  the  time 
,Gard  and  Peterson  were  becoming  more  inti 
mate.  One  day  the  supposed  retired  glass 
manufacturer  confessed  to  the  smuggler  that 


"ROPING"  THE  SMUGGLERS     125 

he  had  once  made  some  easy  money  by  backing 
some  men  who  had  a  system  of  beating  the  pool 
rooms.  This,  he  said,  was  in  Vicksburg,  Miss. 
The  poolrooms  in  that  city  got  their  returns 
on  the  Memphis  races  on  a  loop  that  was 
relayed  out  of  New  Orleans.  That  is,  the 
results  were  telegraphed  from  Memphis  to  New 
Orleans  and  from  there  relayed  to  the  smaller 
cities  on  a  telegraphic  loop.  This  caused  a 
delay  of  about  four  minutes.  The  men  whom 
Gard  had  backed  had  established  communica 
tion  by  telephone  between  Memphis  and  Vicks- 
burg  and  got  the  returns  in  time  to  put  dowa 
bets  ahead  of  the  receipt  of  the  poolroom's 
information.  Thus  they  made  the  cleanup. 

This  not  merely  paved  the  way  to  similar  con 
fidences  on  the  part  of  Peterson,  but  gave  him 
to  understand  that  Gard's  morals  were  none 
too  puritanical,  and  that  he  might  be  induced  to 
back  other  questionable  enterprises. 

Peterson  evidently  thought  this  matter  over 
thoroughly  before  acting,  for  it  was  three  days 
before  he  touched  on  the  subject.  Then  he 
said: 

"I  could  show  a  man  of  your  sort  an  invest 
ment  that  would  pay  him  a  hundred  per  cent. 


126     UNCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

every  month,  if  lie  were  looking  for  a  chance 
to  make  money." 

"Well,  I  am  not  looking  for  such  a  chance," 
said  Gard,  "but  if  one  should  drop  into  my  lap 
I  might  tie  a  string  to  it. ' ' 

"Do  you  know  anything  about  the  opium 
business?"  asked  the  smuggler. 

"Not  a  thing,"  said  Gard. 

'Well,  a  can  of  opium  can  be  bought  for  five 
dollars  in  Jamaica,  and  sold  for  twenty-seven 
fifty  in  Philadelphia." 

"That's  a  pretty  good  profit,"  said  the  spe 
cial  agent;  "but  a  man  would  have  to  get  more 
than  two  or  three  boxes  past  for  it  to  amount 
to  anything." 

"If  you  had  a  trim  little  schooner  and  some 
one  to  show  you  how  to  get  her  past  the  authori 
ties,  and  she  was  loaded  with  opium  to  the  gun 
wales,  you  would  not  have  to  make  a  trip  every 
other  week  to  keep  in  cigarette  money,  would 
you?" 

"Obviously  not,"  assented  the  capitalist. 

"And  you  may  have  noticed  all  these  idle 
Chinamen  about  Sing  Foo's  place,"  continued 
the  smuggler.  "Somebody  is  going  to  get  one 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars  apiece  for  running 


"ROPING"  THE  SMUGGLERS     12T 

those  fellows  into  the  States.  They  are  cross 
ing  in  a  steady  stream  and  getting  past.  It  is 
but  around  the  corner  of  Cuba  and  a  hundred 
inlets  inviting.  Twenty  of  the  Chinks  can  live 
in  a  space  as  big  as  a  dog's  house,  and  they  feed 
themselves.  It's  clear  profit.  The  little 
schooner  could  carry  a  score  or  so  of  them  every 
trip." 

"It  looks  like  a  good  proposition  on  paper," 
said  Grard.  "If  it  could  be  demonstrated,  it 
would  easily  get  a  backer.  But  the  trouble  with 
all  such  schemes  is  that  they  are  good  on  paper, 
but  they  can't  be  actually  shown  upon  the  basis 
that  a  business  man  with  money  demands." 

"But  this  one  can  be  shown,"  urged  the 
smuggler. 

"That  is  the  way  you  fellows  with  fancy 
schemes  always  talk,"  argued  G-ard.  "You  can 
make  all  the  money  in  the  world  if  you  only  had 
the  backing.  Then  a  man  with  the  money 
comes  along  and  says  'show  me.'  You  always 
fall  down  on  the  showing." 

"Would  you  put  up  the  price  of  a  schooner 
and  a  cargo  of  opium  if  you  were  shown  that  my 
scheme  would  work?"  asked  the  smuggler. 

"I    would,"    said    Gard.    "But    you    must 


128     UNCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

remember  that  I  am  a  business  man  who  has 
made  his  stake  by  strictly  business  methods.  I 
must  be  shown." 

This  was  the  first  step  toward  the  formation 
of  a  smuggling  syndicate  that  labored  along  in 
its  preparation  for  birth  and  died  tragically. 

Gard  here  insisted  on  proving  to  Peterson 
his  commercial  reliability  and  financial  stand 
ing.  He  had  long  before  prepared  the  papers 
for  just  such  an  occasion.  He  had  credentials, 
and  letters  of  credit,  and  certificates  of  deposit 
and  bank  books  without  end.  The  smuggler  had 
had  no  idea  of  the  wealth  of  the  man  he  had 
been  cultivating.  The  backing  was  without 
end,  if  he  but  won  this  man's  confidence. 

So  he  took  the  financier  in  tow,  with  the  idea 
of  first  showing  him  the  source  of  supply  of 
opium  and  of  Chinamen.  In  the  presence  of 
Gard  he  got  quotations  on  opium  from  Sing 
Foo  and  from  Fun  Ken  at  five  dollars  for  a  can 
the  size  of  a  pot  of  salmon.  It  was  shown  that 
there  was  opium  to  be  had  practically  without 
end. 

And  the  Chinamen  themselves !  He  was  told 
that  there  were  always  five  hundred  of  them  in 
-Vamaica,  ready  to  make  the  run  into  the  States. 


"ROPING"  THE  SMUGGLERS     129 

[When  these  were  gone  there  were  as  many  more 
on  the  way.  In  fact,  there  was  all  China  to 
draw  from.  Every  Chinaman  who  came  was  a 
member  of  an  association.  That  membership 
was  to  cost  him  six  hundred  dollars.  He  need 
not  pay  in  advance,  as  such  men  as  Sing  Foo 
stood  back  of  the  association  and  furnished  the 
capital.  Whenever  a  Chinaman  got  into  the 
United  States  he  went  to  work.  He  was  able  to 
earn  at  least  twelve  dollars  a  week.  Half  of 
this  went  to  the  association,  until  the  six  hun 
dred  dollar  fee  was  paid.  The  association  was 
willing  to  spend  a  total  of  four  hundred  dollars 
to  get  a  Chinaman  into  the  country.  Its  mini 
mum  profit  was  two  hundred  dollars  a  man. 
The  stream  flowed  constantly.  Were  not  Sing 
Foo  and  Fun  Ken  the  richest  Chinamen  in  the 
Caribbean? 

The  supposed  financier  declared  himself  sat 
isfied  of  the  abundance  of  the  supply  of  these 
objects  for  profitable  smuggling.  But  he 
wanted  to  see  some  of  the  money  actually  made. 
Whereupon  Peterson  and  Flavot  agreed  that  he 
should  have  a  complete  demonstration. 

There  was  then  a  Norwegian  bark  in  port, 
and  her  captain  had  agreed  to  take  aboard 


130     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

twelve  Orientals.  He  was  bound  for  Norfolk. 
Peterson  and  Flavot  had  made  arrangements 
with  him,  and  Sing  Foo  was  ready  with  his  men. 
In  the  dead  of  night  Gard  accompanied  the 
two  Americans  as  they  pushed  off  the  well-laden 
boats  from  the  foot  of  a  deserted  street  in 
Kingston.  He  saw  the  men  go  aboard.  He 
went  deep  into  the  bow  of  the  ship  with  them 
and  saw  them  nailed  up  in  a  nook  behind  a  wall 
that  seemed  to  be  the  end  of  the  vessel.  He 
saw  a  Chinaman  who  had  come  aboard  as  the 
representative  of  Sing  Foo  pass  the  captain 
eighteen  American  one  hundred  dollar  bills. 
He  went  back  to  Chinatown  with  Peterson  and 
Flavot  and  saw  them  draw  their  bonus  of  fifty 
dollars  for  each  Chinaman  that  had  thus  been 
disposed  of. 

The  capitalist  declared  himself  convinced  so 
far  as  the  Chinamen  were  concerned.  How 
could  he  be  shown  profits  in  opium? 

"Opium,"  said  Peterson,  "is  the  one  sure 
way  of  making  easy  money.  If  you  are  ready 
for  a  little  run  back  to  the  States,  I  will  show 
you  all  the  details." 

The  special  agent  assured  the  smuggler  that 
he  would  be  as  pleased  in  making  a  run  back  to 


"ROPING"  THE  SMUGGLERS     131 

the  mainland  as  in  loafing  in  the  Hotel  Myrtle- 
bank,  if  there  were  amusement  in  it  and  a 
chance  to  make  some  money  in  an  interesting 
way. 

Two  days  later  the  three  men  were  aboard 
a  fruit  and  passenger  steamer  at  Port  Antonio, 
bound  for  Philadelphia.  Beneath  the  mattress 
of  each  man's  bunk  were  twenty  cans  of  opium. 

"All  you  have  to  do,"  elaborated  the  smug 
gler,  "is  to  open  up  your  baggage  for  inspec 
tion  as  you  approach  the  port.  The  inspectors 
go  through  it,  but  never  do  such  a  thing  as  look 
beneath  the  mattress.  When  they  have  gone 
you  take  the  opium  out  from  its  hiding  place 
and  put  it  into  your  baggage,  which  had  al 
ready  been  inspected.  Then  it  goes  ashore." 

"But,"  insisted  the  special  agent,  "is  not 
your  stuff  examined  again  on  the  wharf?" 

"This  system  would  not  work,"  Peterson 
explained,  "if  you  were  landing  at  New  York. 
There  the  baggage  is  examined  in  the  state 
rooms  and  again  on  the  pier,  as  the  passengers 
come  ashore.  But  in  Philadelphia  there  is  but 
the  one  examination,  which  takes  place  in  the 
stateroom." 

"But  is  there  not  a  pretty  good  chance  that 


132     UXCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

the  inspector  may  sometime  look  under  the  mat 
tress?"  Gard  asked. 

"There  is  the  barest  possibility,"  assented 
the  smuggler.  "We  have  been  taking  it  in  this 
way  for  years,  and  it  has  never  been  found. 
But  if  it  is  discovered,  we  have  but  to  look 
innocent.  It  cannot  be  proved  that  we  are 
responsible  for  its  presence.  It  might  be  the 
steward. ' ' 

The  three  came  into  Philadelphia,  and  passed 
the  customs  officials  as  the  smugglers  had  pro 
phesied,  without  a  hitch.  They  went  to  their 
hotel,  and  there  found  themselves  each  the  pos 
sessor  of  twenty  cans  of  opium,  for  which  they 
had  paid  five  dollars  and  for  which,  Peterson 
said,  they  were  to  receive  $27.50.  This  was  the 
part  of  the  transaction  that  was  yet  to  be  dem 
onstrated. 

"We  will  do  but  a  little  business  in  Philadel 
phia,"  said  Peterson,  "just  to  show  that  it  can 
be  done." 

They  took  ten  cans  of  the  opium  to  a  China 
man  in  Arch  street,  with  whom  Peterson  was 
acquainted.  Yes,  this  man  would  buy  opium. 
The  price  for  the  same  grade  was  the  same  as 
before,  $27.50.  He  could  use  all  he  could  get. 


"ROPING"  THE  SMUGGLERS 

He  would  be  glad  to  take  ten  cans.  The  profit 
on  these  ten  cans  was  $225. 

"We  could  have  sold  him  a  hundred  cans  as 
easily,  with  ten  times  the  profit,"  said  Peter 
son, 

In  New  York  the  smugglers  called  upon  a 
Doctor  Yen,  in  Pell  Street,  one  of  the  important 
men  in  Chinatown.  He  stated  that  he  was  able 
to  buy  opium  at  $27.50.  The  smugglers  insisted 
on  $30.  After  much  haggling  20  cans  were  sold 
at  $28.50.  Here  was  a  profit  of  $470. 

But  Doctor  Yen  was  to  be  counseled  on  a 
much  more  important  matter.  He  was  to  be 
told  of  the  proposal  to  purchase  a  boat  for  the 
opium  traffic.  He  was  to  be  asked  to  guarantee 
the  purchase  of  large  amounts  of  opium. 

The  old  Chinaman  became  greatly  excited. 
He  ran  to  his  safe  and  came  back  with  $10,000 
in  currency.  He  was  willing  to  put  up  this 
money  for  its  value  in  opium  at  $27.50  a  can  as 
soon  as  delivered.  When  that  was  gone  there 
would  be  other  money.  He  alone  would  make 
the  owners  of  the  boat  rich. 

In  Boston  was  the  actual  headquarters  of 
Peterson  and  Flavot.  A  Jew  by  the  name  of 
Ferren  was  their  financial  backer.  It  was  Fer- 


134     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

ren  who  had  put  them  into  the  business.  "When 
Ferren  was  told  of  the  proposed  enterprise  he 
would  not  at  first  listen  to  it.  He  would  have 
to  be  shown  that  this  Mr.  Gard  was  on  the  level. 
There  were  too  many  eyes  watching  for  opium. 

Peterson  told  of  the  credentials,  and  finally 
succeeded  in  convincing  him  that  Gard  was  what 
he  purported  to  be  and,  gaining  confidence  as 
the  plan  developed,  the  Jew  finally  became 
enthusiastic.  In  the  end  he  vied  with  Doctor 
Yen  in  his  anxiety  to  purchase  unlimited  opium. 

Gradually  Gard  granted  that  he  was  con 
vinced  of  the  feasibility  of  the  scheme,  if  he 
were  shown  the  possibility  of  getting  the 
schooner  into  the  States.  It  was  at  this  point 
that  he  was  introduced  to  one  Captain  Bailey, 
who  had,  some  years  before,  figured  in  a  very 
sensational  attempt  at  the  introduction  of  Chi 
namen  from  Canada  and  their  landing  at  New 
Haven.  Bailey  had  been  caught,  had  served  a 
term  in  prison,  and,  since  his  liberation,  was  run- 
ing  a  fish  stand  in  Boston  market. 

But  Bailey  knew  all  the  coves  in  the  Atlantic 
and  the  gulf  into  which  a  boat  might  put.  He 
knew  every  dock  where  she  might  tie  up,  and  the 
time  that  must  pass  thereafter  before  it  would 


"ROPING"  THE  SMUGGLERS     135 

be  safe  to  put  his  men  ashore.  Operating  from 
Jamaica  there  was  none  of  the  danger  into 
which  he  had  run  in  bringing  Orientals  from 
Canada. 

Eventually  the  papers  were  drawn,  setting 
forth  conditions  under  which  all  these  men 
entered  into  a  partnership  in  this  smuggling 
venture.  Gard,  Ferren,  Peterson,  Flavot  and 
Bailey  had  all  signed,  and  Gard  had  gone  to 
New  York  to  get  the  signature  of  Doctor  Yen. 
The  district  attorney's  office  in  Boston  was  pre 
pared  for  the  arrests  when  the  papers  should 
finally  be  signed.  When  Doctor  Yen  affixed  his 
signature  Gard  signaled  an  associate  across  the 
narrow  street  in  Chinatown.  He  sent  the  flash 
to  Boston  and  the  trap  was  sprung. 

So  were  all  the  inside  facts  of  this  most  aggra 
vating  system  of  smuggling  revealed.  With 
these  facts  in  hand,  the  Government  had  little 
difficulty  in  breaking  up  a  system  that  had  been 
causing  a  lot  of  trouble  for  a  decade. 

So,  also,  was  one  of  the  most  complete  and 
successful  cases  of  "roping"  that  any  of  the 
Government  agents  had  ever  attempted  carried 
to  a  successful  termination. 


vn 

A   BANK   CASE   FROM   THE   OUTSIDE 

IT  is  astonishing,"  said  Gard,  the  book 
keeper,  "how  few  people  know  anything 
about  their  own  business.  Take  bank 
accounts,  for  instance.  Many  people  have 
money  in  the  bank  which  lies  there  inactive. 
There  is  not  one  man  in  five,  having  such  an  ac 
count,  who  can  tell  the  amount  of  it." 

This  statement  was  launched  during  the  even 
ing  meal  at  Mrs.  Hudson's  very  respectable 
boarding-house  in  the  prosperous  little  town  of 
New  Beaufort,  which  slumbers  in  one  of  the  val 
leys  of  central  New  York. 

"I  must  take  issue  with  you  there,"  ventured 
the  elderly  rector  of  the  Episcopal  church  who, 
being  a  widower,  boarded  with  Mrs.  Hudson. 
"I,  for  instance,  have  managed  to  save  a  little 
money  for  old  age  and  I  can  tell  the  amount  of 
it  to  a  penny." 

136 


A  BANK  CASE  137 

''And  I  know  just  how  much  I  have  on 
deposit,"  insisted  Miss  Dolan,  the  school 
teacher. 

"And  I  am  quite  sure  of  mine,"  asserted  a 
buxom  widow  who  had  collected  life  insurance. 

"As  a  test  of  my  contention,"  said  Gard,  "I 
am  willing  to  pledge  a  box  of  candy  to  each  of 
the  ladies  and  cigars  to  the  gentlemen  who  will 
set  down  the  exact  amounts  of  their  inactive 
accounts  in  the  First  National  bank  and  then 
prove  their  figures  correct  by  application  to  the 
cashier. ' ' 

This  proposal  appealed  to  those  who  had  been 
drawn  into  the  incipient  controversy.  Next  day 
they  asked  for  the  figures,  and  each  had  won  his 
reward.  Gard  seemed  chagrined  that  his  the 
ory  should  have  thus  gone  to  the  winds,  but  he 
cheerfully  stood  treat. 

For  he  had  established  a  fact  very  important 
to  him.  The  inactive  accounts  of  the  First 
National  bank  of  New  Beaufort  were  intact. 

This  was  one  of  the  first  steps  in  an  investi 
gation  of  a  financial  institution  which,  while 
seemingly  in  the  best  of  condition,  was  suspected 
of  having  been  looted  for  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  dollars.  Special  agents  of  the  Department  of 


138     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

Justice  knew  that  an  official  of  the  bank  had  been 
trading  heavily  in  Wall  Street  and  that  he  had 
lost.  Gard,  a  member  of  this  new  detective 
force  of  the  Federal  Government,  had  been  sent 
to  investigate.  Eepresenting  himself  as  a  book 
keeper  he  had  secured  a  position  with  the  lead 
ing  grocer  and  had  come  to  board  with  Mrs. 
Hudson. 

He  stayed  three  months.  At  the  end  of  that 
time  he  reported  the  shortage,  fixed  the  blame 
upon  the  man  responsible  for  it,  showed  the 
methods  used,  cited  the  accounts  from  which  the 
money  had  been  stolen,  told  what  accounts  were 
still  intact.  Yet  he  had  never  been  inside  the 
bank,  had  seen  none  of  its  books,  had  consulted 
with  nobody  familiar  with  them,  had  received 
no  confessions.  The  manner  in  which  he 
accomplished  these  seemingly  impossible  ends 
illustrates  most  excellently  the  methods  used  by 
this  new  detective  agency  of  the  Government. 

It  was  a  strange  conspiracy  of  circumstances 
that  brought  to  New  Beaufort  detectives  from 
three  different  services  on  the  night,  two  months 
later,  that  Conrad  Compton,  the  enterprising 
citizen  and  banker,  was  giving  his  big  party. 

There  was  McCord,  a  plain-clothes  man  from 


A  BANK  CASE  130 

New  York.  McCord  would  not  have  been  in 
New  Beaufort  but  for  the  ramifications  of  the 
New  York  police  department  in  keeping  track 
of  these  middle  class  criminals  who  live  through 
the  trade  of  burglary — a  calling  that  is  some 
times  refined  to  art.  And  the  police  depart 
ment  would  not  have  come  into  possession  of  a 
certain  tip  if  " Speck"  Thompson  had  not  done 
his  bit  up  the  river  and  returned  to  his  old 
haunts  so  broken  that  he  chose  to  become  a  stool 
pigeon  because  he  was  no  longer  up  to  second 
story  work. 

Speck  had  found  that  "Dutch"  Shroder  had 
arranged  to  crack  a  safe  and  that  the  scene  of 
the  cracking  was  New  Beaufort.  He  had  tipped 
the  matter  off  to  the  police,  and  hence  McCord 's 
presence  in  a  community  that  was  far  from 
metropolitan.  He  represented  the  first  of  the 
detective  services. 

The  second  such  service  was  represented  by 
Ogram  Newton,  a  bank  examiner  in  the  service 
of  the  treasury  department.  His  district  was 
central  New  York.  For  three  years  he  had 
been  taking  an  occasional  look  into  the  books 
of  the  various  national  banks  of  his  district, 
checking  up  assets  and  liabilities,  inquiring  into 


140     UNCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

the  value  of  the  paper  held  by  the  banks.  Two 
weeks  before  Conrad  Compton  gave  his  party 
Newton  had  been  in  New  Beaufort  and  had  gone 
thoroughly  into  the  affairs  of  the  bank.  Its 
books  were  models  of  efficiency  and  there  was  no 
flaw  to  be  found  in  any  of  its  securities  or  loans. 
Newton  had  given  the  institution  his  0.  K.  and 
had  passed  on  to  other  towns. 

But  there  was  a  feeling  of  unrest  that  haunted 
the  young  examiner.  It  seemed  that  his  subcon 
scious  mind  was  aware  of  an  oversight  that  had 
been  made  by  his  working  faculties.  He  was 
not  able  to  sleep  well  of  nights,  and  in  his  sleep 
the  various  accounts  of  the  New  Beaufort  bank 
insisted  on  visualizing  themselves.  Finally  the 
recurring  accounts  eliminated  themselves  with 
the  exception  of  one  which  persisted.  The  loans 
and  discounts  account  kept  thrusting  itself  into 
his  consciousness. 

"By  Jove!"  he  exclaimed  suddenly  to  him 
self.  '  *  The  entries  in  that  account,  the  amounts 
of  money  that  have  been  run  through  it,  are  out 
of  all  proportion  to  the  other  business  of  the 
institution.  Something  is  wrong  with  loans  and 
discounts.*' 

So  Newton  hurried  back  to  New  Beaufort  and 


A  BANK  CASE  141 

was  that  night  a  guest  at  the  party  given  by 
Conrad  Compton,  with  whom  he  had  built  up  a 
friendship  through  years  of  association  in  the 
line  of  his  work.  He  was  to  take  a  further  look 
at  the  loans  and  discounts  on  the  morrow. 

The  Department  of  Justice  is  the  prosecutor 
in  cases  of  violations  of  the  national  banking 
law.  Its  work  is  entirely  apart  from  that  of 
the  bank  examiners  of  the  treasury  department. 
The  New  York  office  of  this  service,  as  a  matter 
of  daily  routine,  received  the  information  that 
David  Lorance,  assistant  cashier  of  the  First 
National  bank  of  New  Beaufort,  was  regularly 
placing  heavy  buying  and  selling  orders  with  a 
certain  broker  in  Wall  Street. 

For  this  reason,  Agent  Gard  got  the  assign 
ment  to  come  to  New  Beaufort,  and  was  thus  the 
representative  of  the  third  detective  service. 
His  windows  at  the  grocery  store  looked  out 
upon  the  side  door  of  the  bank  opposite.  He 
was  bland  and  inconspicuous,  but  he  was  an 
expert  accountant,  had  taken  a  degree  in  the 
law  and  worked  three  nights  a  week  in  the 
gymnasium  in  New  York  when  he  was  in  town. 

The  Compton  home  stood  on  a  hill  just  back 
of  the  town.  It  was  known  as  Stone  Crest  and 


142     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

was  the  most  ambitious  establishment  there 
abouts,  being  always  pointed  out  with  pride  to 
visitors.  The  banker  was  a  widower,  but  given 
to  entertainment  and  to  charity.  The  members 
of  the  board  of  aldermen  often  met  at  Stone 
Crest  to  discuss  those  matters  that  had  to  do 
with  the  well-being  of  the  town.  Teas  were 
given  there  whenever  its  charitable  women  were 
inaugurating  some  new  venture.  The  party 
to-night  was  a  semipublic  affair,  for  it  was  in 
commemoration  of  a  centennial  anniversary  of 
that  occasion  when  the  first  settlers  had  fought 
off  attacking  Indians  from  their  stockade 
through  a  day  and  night. 

Conrad  Compton  was  a  tall,  graceful,  nervous 
man,  with  a  high  forehead  and  a  mass  of  wavy 
hair.  His  features  were  of  a  perfect  regularity 
and  the  whole  face  was  so  small  as  to  give  it 
somewhat  the  appearance  of  that  of  a  woman, 
an  impression  that  was  heightened  by  its  abso 
lute  pallor. 

Ogram  Newton,  the  bank  examiner,  watched 
his  host  narrowly  as  he  received  his  guests,  as 
he  directed  their  entertainment  by  a  party  of 
professionals  who  had  been  brought  up  from 
New  York  for  the  occasion,  as  the  ices  were 


A  BANK  CASE  143 

served.  He  thought  the  banker  was  a  bit  paler 
than  usual  and  his  natural  nervousness  seemed 
somewhat  accentuated.  Once  during  the  even 
ing  he  had  drifted  into  the  library  which  hap 
pened  to  be  empty  of  guests,  and  had  found  the 
host  peering  out  of  a  window  that  commanded 
a  view  of  the  town. 

''I  trust  you  will  pardon  my  preoccupation," 
said  the  banker,  turning  again  to  his  guests,  "I 
seem  to  have  a  way  of  feeling  lonesomest  when  I 
have  most  company." 

McCord,  the  plain-clothes  man,  had  vacillated 
between  his  hotel,  the  railway  station,  and  those 
streets  that  gave  views  of  the  alleys  leading  past 
the  back  ends  of  establishments  that  might  con 
tain  safes  worth  raffling.  Occasionally  his  eye 
fell  upon  the  lights  in  the  house  of  the  banker 
on  the  hill,  and  wandered  to  the  chief  financial 
establishment  of  the  town.  Yet  all  was  so 
serene  in  this  eddy  of  the  world  that  the  hour  of 
solitude  that  followed  eleven  o'clock  seemed 
such  an  age  that  it  drove  him  to  bed. 

As  the  time  drew  on  toward  twelve  there  was 
no  sign  of  life  in  the  village.  The  lights  in  the 
drug  stores,  the  restaurants,  the  delicatessens 
where  ice  cream  is  served  to  the  small  town 


144     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

lovers,  had  one  by  one  winked  themselves  out. 
The  owl  car  of  the  trolley  line  that  ran  through 
the  village  had  deposited  its  last  late  revelers 
at  eleven-thirty.  The  swinging  arc  lights  at  the 
street  intersections  occasionally  sputtered  fit 
fully  and  glared  again.  A  dynamo  whirred  dis 
tantly  at  the  electric  light  plant. 

Gard,  the  special  agent  of  the  Department  of 
Justice,  was  one  of  the  few  men  in  the  town  who 
was  awake  except  those  who  had  been  guests  of 
the  banker  and  who  had  lingered  to  an  hour 
which  was  almost  unprecedented  in  New  Beau 
fort.  They  would  have  gone  home  at  eleven, 
but  the  banker  insisted  that  they  remain  for  fur 
ther  entertainment  on  the  part  of  his  New  York 
musicians.  One  song  called  forth  another  and 
the  quality  of  the  music  proved  so  much  more 
pleasing  than  that  of  their  customary  local  tal 
ent  that  they  forgot  the  passing  of  time.  The 
special  agent  sat  on  a  hill  near  the  Compton 
home  and  smoked  a  pipe. 

It  was  twelve  o'clock  before  the  party  finally 
broke  up.  Those  of  the  townspeople  who  had 
come  in  their  automobiles  were  being  tucked  into 
the  tonneaus,  and  those  who  had  walked  up  the 
gray  macadam  drive  were  just  setting  out  on 


A  BANK  CASE  145 

foot  when  the  clatter  as  of  a  bunch  of  giant  fire 
crackers  called  their  attention  to  the  village 
below.  From  the  bank  building  was  seen  sud 
denly  to  burst  a  cloud  of  smoke  while,  a  moment 
later,  a  skylight  was  broken  and  a  tongue  of 
flame  leaped  forth. 

*  *  Fire !  Fire ! ' '  came  the  shout  from  a  dozen 
voices. 

Gard  had  seen  more  than  had  the  guests  of 
the  banker.  As  he  smoked  his  pipe  and  watched 
the  village  below,  the  lights  in  the  windows  of 
Stone  Crest,  and  the  silent  cottage  of  Lorance, 
the  assistant  cashier,  he  had  seen  an  automobile, 
with  no  lamp  showing,  creep  through  the  quiet 
back  street,  purr  stealthily  into  the  alley  back 
of  the  bank  and  stop  behind  a  small  building 
that  shut  off  his  view.  Half  an  hour  passed  and 
the  darkened  machine  reappeared  from  behind 
the  intervening  building,  turning  into  the  thor 
oughfare  leading  to  the  southeast  and  disap 
peared  in  the  distance  at  an  ever  increasing  rate 
of  speed. 

When  the  exploding  cartridges  in  the 
cashier's  drawer  at  the  bank  gave  the  first  warn 
ing  of  the  fire,  the  clamor  of  the  alarm  followed 
and  pandemonium  broke  out  in  the  village.  Of 


146     UNCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

the  dispersing  group  on  the  hill,  every  one  ran 
for  a  nearer  view  of  the  fire.  The  musicians, 
the  servants,  the  master  of  the  house  himself, 
all  hurried  into  the  village  to  make  part  of  the 
excitement  that  prevailed.  Stone  Crest,  the 
lights  of  its  entertainment  still  glowing,  was  left 
deserted. 

Gard,  the  special  agent,  again  acted  differ 
ently  from  his  fellows  by  failing  to  do  the  thing 
which  others  did.  He  crossed  over  from  the 
hill  on  which  he  had  smoked  and  hastily  entered 
the  banker's  house.  Arriving,  he  seemed  to 
know  exactly  what  he  wanted.  He  hurried 
through  the  rooms  of  the  house,  snapping  on 
still  more  lights  until  he  found  that  apartment 
which  seemed  to  be  the  personal  retreat  of  the 
owner. 

Here  he  evidently  had  business.  Standing 
in  the  middle  of  the  floor  he  looked  about. 
Thrown  carelessly  into  a  window  seat  he  saw 
two  heavy  books  of  the  appearance  of  ledg 
ers.  These  he  secured  and  placed  on  a  table 
in  the  middle  of  the  room  without  even  ex 
amining  them.  Next  he  began  further  explo 
ration.  When  he  found  the  banker's  bedroom 
he  seemed  satisfied.  On  the  back  of  a  chair  was 


A  BANK  CASE  147 

a  coat,  evidently  that  which  Compton  had  worn 
until  he  dressed  for  the  evening.  Gard  thrust 
his  hand  into  the  inside  pocket  of  his  coat  and 
pulled  out  a  batch  of  letters  through  which  he 
ran  rapidly.  He  selected  two  or  three,  thrust 
them  into  his  pocket,  returned  for  the  ledgers, 
tucked  these  under  his  arm  and  left  the  house. 

On  the  way  to  his  lodgings  he  filed  a  telegram 
to  the  department  at  Washington  which  read  as 
follows : 

Compton,  cashier  in  First  National  bank  case, 
guilty.  Lorance  probably  not  implicated.  Bank 
burned  to-night  by  accomplices  of  Compton.  Case 
complete.  GARD. 

The  manner  in  which  these  conclusions  were 
reached  are  but  typical  of  the  methods  of  the 
sleuths  of  the  Department  of  Justice.  Gard  had 
come  to  New  Beaufort  with  but  a  suspicion  that 
Lorance,  the  assistant  cashier,  was  playing  the 
market  on  the  funds  of  the  bank.  Lorance  was 
known  to  be  placing  orders  with  a  Wall  Street 
broker. 

At  the  boarding  house  Gard  learned  that  Lor 
ance  lived  modestly  in  a  cottage  with  his  wife 
and  babies,  had  not  been  seen  to  make  any  dis- 


148     UXCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

play  of  money,  was  of  sturdy  farmer  stock.  On 
the  other  hand  the  investigator  immediately 
picked  up  the  facts  that  the  cashier,  Compton, 
maintained  an  expensive  establishment,  enter 
tained  lavishly,  was  often  absent  from  town,  was 
nervous,  highstrung,  in  bad  health. 

All  these  facts  led  him  to  watch  the  cashier 
rather  than  his  assistant.  They  led  him,  also, 
to  some  experimental  testing  of  the  condition  of 
the  bank's  accounts.  He  knew  that  a  dishonest 
employee  of  a  bank,  in  appropriating  money, 
had  to  charge  it  to  some  account  to  make  the 
books  balance.  The  large,  inactive  accounts 
offer  a  most  tempting  opportunity  of  this  sort ; 
but  these  were  found  to  be  intact  by  his  ruse  of 
inducing  the  depositors  to  call  for  their  bal 
ances. 

It  was  to  get  a  better  line  on  the  business 
of  the  community,  and  particularly  upon  the 
accounts  of  Compton,  that  the  special  agent 
secured  a  position  of  bookkeeper  in  Joy's  gro 
cery  store.  Here  he  found,  in  the  first  place, 
that  the  buying  of  the  Compton  home  was 
profligate  and  evidently  wasteful.  He  found, 
further,  that  the  bills  were  always  paid  without 
question  and  by  check.  Knowing  of  an  old  trick 


A  BANK  CASE  149 

that  has  brought  many  a  cashier  to  ruin,  Gard 
sought  a  way  to  test  these  personal  checks  to 
determine  whether  or  not  they  actually  found 
their  way  to  the  personal  account  of  the  cashier. 

The  cashier  of  a  bank  is  usually  the  individual 
who  opens  the  mail,  and  many  of  these  have 
been  known  to  cash  personal  checks  and  destroy 
them  when  they  came  in  for  collection,  charging 
the  amount  to  some  account  where  it  might  tem 
porarily  be  hidden.  To  determine  whether  or 
not  these  personal  checks  were  being  juggled  by 
the  cashier  Gard,  as  the  grocer's  bookkeeper, 
found  a  pretext  to  send  to  the  bank  for  a  record 
of  some  personal  checks  of  Comp ton's  which  he 
had  handled  a  few  days  earlier.  The  call  was 
made  while  Compton  was  out  to  lunch,  and  the 
checks  could  not  be  found.  Through  another 
dealer  Gard  succeeded  in  getting  a  second  simi 
lar  request  made  with  the  same  results.  He 
concluded  that  Compton  was  at  least  juggling 
his  personal  account  and  charging  the  amount 
of  his  personal  checks  to  some  other  account, 
probably  loans  and  discounts. 

In  various  ways  the  special  agent  found 
opportunities,  even  without  seeing  the  books  of 
the  bank,  of  demonstrating  to  his  satisfaction 


150     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

that  the  accounts  were  being  juggled.  This  was 
particularly  true  of  new  deposits.  When  a 
cashier  is  particularly  hard  pressed  he  may 
resort  to  a  manipulation  of  the  accounts  of  cur 
rent  depositors.  The  system  is  the  simplest  in 
the  world.  When  a  depositor  hands  in  his 
money,  the  cashier  enters  the  amount  in  the  pass 
book  of  that  individual  as  a  receipt.  Then, 
instead  of  entering  the  money  to  the  depositor's 
credit,  the  cashier  puts  it  into  his  pocket.  Thus 
there  is  nothing  to  show  for  the  transaction  but 
the  entry  in  the  pass  book,  and  that  may  not  be 
presented  for  a  long  time.  The  cashier  chooses 
for  spoliation  the  accounts  about  which  in 
quiries  are  least  likely  to  be  made.  As  far  as 
the  books  of  the  bank  are  concerned  they  are 
as  though  the  deposit  had  never  been  made,  and 
the  bank  examiner,  therefore,  has  no  way  of  dis 
covering  the  shortage. 

Gard,  through  the  store  for  which  he  worked, 
made  several  deposits,  and,  upon  one  pretext 
and  another,  sent  to  the  assistant  cashier  of  the 
bank  for  the  record  of  them  in  the  absence  of 
Compton.  They  did  not  show  on  the  account 
of  the  grocery  store  and  the  matter  was  passed 
over  as  a  misunderstanding.  But  a  second 


A  BANK  CASE  151 

avenue  of  misappropriation  thus  was  discov 
ered. 

In  this  way  the  special  agent  was  able  from 
the  outside  to  get  very  good  leads  into  the  con 
dition  of  the  bank  and  to  determine  the  manner 
of  its  looting  when  the  facts  might  not  have  been 
obtainable  by  an  expert  working  from  the  in 
side. 

Gard's  case  was  about  completed  and  the 
Department  was  ready  to  act  when  the  dra 
matic  denouement  came.  Arson,  suicide  and 
flight  are  the  three  events  most  to  be  expected 
when  the  funds  of  a  bank  have  been  misappro 
priated.  The  young  special  agent  was  watch 
ing  for  any  of  these  at  the  time  of  the  anniver 
sary  party  given  by  the  banker.  It  was  in 
preparation  for  any  of  them  that  he  watched 
so  late  on  that  occasion. 

On  the  afternoon  which  preceded  the  enter 
tainment  Gard  was  working  over  his  books  at 
the  store  and  at  the  same  time  keeping  an  eye 
on  the  bank.  An  hour  after  closing  time  at  the 
bank  he  saw  Compton  come  out  of  the  side  door 
with  two  books  of  the  institution  under  his  arm. 
He  could  make  out  that  one  was  loans  and  dis 
counts.  He  surmised  that  they  might  be  rec- 


152     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

ords  that  were  to  be  destroyed — probably  the 
books  that  showed  his  guilt. 

When  from  the  hillside  Gard  that  night  saw 
the  silent  car  stop  back  of  the  bank  and  the 
flames  subsequently  break  out,  he  knew  what  had 
happened.  These  were  accomplices  of  the 
cashier  who  had  probably  looted  the  bank  of 
any  remaining  funds  and,  according  to  agree 
ment,  had  set  it  on  fire  that  the  incriminating 
records  of  the  cashier  might  be  destroyed.  The 
wily  cashier,  however,  had  made  sure  that  the 
books  that  showed  his  guilt  would  not  be  found, 
in  case  the  plan  was  not  an  entire  success.  He 
had  removed  them  himself,  but  had  not  as  yet 
destroyed  them  for  he  saw  no  probability  of 
coming  under  immediate  suspicion.  Likewise 
had  he  neglected  to  destroy  certain  correspond 
ence  that  later  connected  him  with  the  parties 
found  to  have  committed  the  arson. 

The  books  taken  from  the  banker's  house 
were  found  to  be  the  personal  ledger  wherein 
should  have  been  entered  deposits,  and  the  loans 
and  discounts  ledger  in  which  account  Compton 
had  entered  the  amounts  representing  all  his 
personal  checks.  This  latter  was  the  account 
that  had  dwelt  in  the  mind  of  Newton,  the  bank 


A  BANK  CASE  153 

examiner.  The  letters  that  Gard  had  found  in 
the  banker 's  pockets,  though  unsigned  and  mys 
teriously  phrased,  were  later  traced  to  the  Dutch 
Shroder  gang.  They  proved  a  great  aid  to  Mc- 
Cord,  the  plain-clothes  man,  who  had  slept 
peacefully  through  all  the  clamor  incident  to 
the  burning  of  the  bank,  but  who,  through  them, 
was  able  to  trace  the  burglars. 

Compton  went  to  pieces  when  confronted  with 
the  proof  that  his  derelictions  had  been  found 
out.  When  his  townspeople  came  to  know  the 
facts  on  the  following  day,  they  stormed  the  jail 
and  threatened  to  lynch  him.  So  determined 
was  their  onslaught  that  the  sheriff  spirited  the 
prisoner  away.  In  desperation  he  confessed 
his  crimes  and  exonerated  Lorance,  the  assist 
ant  cashier,  who  in  playing  the  market  had  only 
executed  the  orders  of  his  superior.  Compton 
lived  but  six  months  after  his  conviction  and 
sentence  to  ten  years  in  the  penitentiary  at 
Atlanta. 


ym 

BEHIND   CUSTOMS   SCREENS 

THE  effrontery  of  this  special  agent,  you 
would  quite  naturally  conclude,  was 
ridiculous.  You  approve  of  the  sort  of 
courage  that  makes  a  man  willing  to  tackle 
almost  any  big  task,  but  you  also  recognize  the 
limitations  of  the  individual.  David  with  his 
slingshot  had  an  obvious  chance  of  success.  If 
he  could  make  a  scratch  shot  and  land  on 
the  coco  of  Mr.  Goliath  he  would  win.  But 
Special  Agent  Billy  Gard  sallied  forth  non- 
chantly  against  the  whole  army  of  Philistines, 
apparently  without  even  a  slingshot. 

The  Philistines  in  this  case  were  typified  by 
the  customs  crowd  of  the  port  of  New  York. 
That  crowd  was  a  ring  within  the  administra 
tion  of  the  affairs  of  that  greatest  of  gateways 
that  had  built  up  a  system  for  diverting  a  mil 
lion  of  dollars  a  year  from  the  pocket  of  Uncle 

154 


BEHIND  CUSTOMS  SCREENS     153 

Sam  and  appropriating  the  money  to  itself. 
For  twenty-five  years  the  men  of  this  inner  cir 
cle  had  steadily  strengthened  their  positions, 
their  hold  upon  those  in  authority,  their  power 
to  shake  down  importers.  There  is  a  great 
influence  to  be  wielded  by  a  million  dollars  a 
year  in  the  hands  of  willing  spenders. 

The  development  qf  this  condition  of  affairs 
was  based  primarily  upon  the  fact  that  posi 
tions  in  the  customs  service  are  dependent  upon 
politics.  The  men  who  built  up  the  system  of 
customs  graft  had  secured  their  appointments 
because  they  had  political  influence.  They 
afterward  used  that  influence  and  put  their  easy 
money  back  of  it.  Their  power  grew.  It  made 
it  possible  for  them  to  dictate  appointments 
more  important  than  their  own,  even  to  the  col 
lector  ship  itself.  It  made  it  possible  for  them 
to  bring  about  the  removal  of  any  smaller  official 
who  seemed  to  stand  in  their  way.  Men  not  in 
the  ring  learned  to  wink  at  many  things  that 
they  saw.  When  an  emissary  of  the  crooked 
customs  crowd  went  to  an  importer,  even  where 
he  was  honest,  it  came  to  be  known  that  it  was 
wise  to  listen  to  any  proposal  made.  Thus  did 
the  machine  gather  force. 


156     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

Just  one  example  of  the  workings  of  the  sys 
tem.  An  Italian  named  Costello  was  an 
importer  of  cheese.  He  was  a  successful,  enter 
prising  and  honest  merchant.  One  day  he 
received  a  large  shipment  from  Italy,  upon 
which  he  expected  to  pay  a  duty  of  $10,000. 
The  cargo  was  unloaded  and  weighed  by  the 
customs  representatives.  That  night  an  emis 
sary  of  the  ring  called  upon  the  Italian  mer 
chant.  He  showed  the  record  of  weights  for 
the  cheese  cargo.  According  to  this  record  Cos 
tello  would  have  had  to  pay  a  duty  of  $5,000. 
It  showed  but  half  the  weight  in  cheese  that  had 
actually  arrived. 

"We  save  you  $5,000,"  said  the  spokesman. 
' '  We  expect  you  to  divide  the  profit. ' ' 

"But  I  believe  in  dealing  honestly  with  the 
Government,"  said  Costello.  "I  have  always 
done  so  and  I  have  prospered." 

"My  tip  to  you,"  said  the  go-between,  "is  to 
do  as  the  weighers  suggest.  They  could  as 
easily  have  charged  you  overweight  as  under 
weight.  Besides,  you  will  save  much  money. ' ' 

The  importer,  a  foreigner,  thus  advised  by 
representatives  of  the  Government  of  his  adop 
tion,  took  the  tip  and  thereafter  profited  through 


BEHIND  CUSTOMS  SCREENS     157 

this  official  corruption  and  shared  the  duties 
thus  saved.  Costello  received  most  of  his  goods 
as  part  of  what  were  known  as  *  *  Mediterranean 
cargoes, ' '  cheese,  macaroni,  olive  oil.  The  Gov 
ernment  was  afterward  found  to  have  been  los 
ing  an  average  of  $20,000  on  each  Mediter 
ranean  cargo  that  came  to  port. 

The  case  is  typical.  The  representatives  of 
the  Government  practically  forced  the  importers 
into  these  deceptions.  The  customs  service  and 
commercial  New  York  became  permeated  with 
this  sort  of  fraud. 

Henry  L.  Stimson  was  appointed  United 
States  district  attorney  in  1909  and  determined 
to  clean  up  these  customs  frauds.  William 
Loeb,  Jr.,  was  collector  of  the  port,  and  of  the 
same  mind.  The  two  men  got  their  heads 
together  and  considered  ways  and  means.  A 
big  cleanup  followed  and  in  bringing  it  about 
the  work  of  Detective  Billy  Gard  played  a  most 
important  part. 

This  young  special  agent  was  told  to  go  out 
and  master  the  detail  of  New  York  customs,  a 
service  that  was  new  to  him,  to  come  to  under 
stand  them  so  well  that  he  could  place  his  finger 
on  the  points  where  things  were  going  wrong,  to 


158     UNCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

pick  out  the  men  in  the  service  who  were  cor 
rupt,  to  get  his  information  in  such  form  that 
it  would  be  admissible  in  court  as  evidence  and 
so  strong  that  it  would  insure  convictions.  He 
was  to  do  all  this  in  the  face  of  the  unfriendli 
ness  of  the  service  he  was  to  study,  despite  all 
the  stumbling-blocks  that  would  be  put  in  his 
way,  in  opposition  to  the  dominant  political 
machine  of  the  port,  in  the  face  of  a  lack  of  any 
special  knowledge  of  the  service.  Young  Gard 
accepted  the  assignment  with  a  grin. 

"What  are  you  doing  on  the  customs  cases?" 
District  Attorney  Stimson  asked  three  weeks 
later. 

"Going  to  the  baseball  games,"  said  Gard. 

"I  hadn't  noticed  any  cargoes  being  unloaded 
out  that  way,"  said  Stimson.  "How  long  have 
you  been  a  fan?" 

"Just  a  week,"  said  the  special  agent. 
"Never  attended  a  game  before  in  my  life.  I 
sit  in  the  nice,  warm  sun  of  the  bleachers  to  the 
right  among  the  fanatics.  I  have  learned  to 
keep  a  score  card  already. ' ' 

And  such  were  actually  the  facts.  To  solve 
the  riddle  of  the  customs  frauds  Agent  Gard 


BEHIND  CUSTOMS  SCREENS     159 

was  working  hard  at  the  task  of  becoming  a 
baseball  fan. 

Two  weeks  he  had  devoted  to  the  docks.  Dur 
ing  the  first  of  these  weeks  he  had  gone  from 
wharf  to  wharf  and  from  man  to  man.  He  had 
asked  many  questions  which  were  but  the  com 
mon  places  that  any  individual  who  wanted  to 
get  a  smattering  of  the  detail  of  such  a  business 
would  have  asked.  He  was  received  tolerantly 
by  the  old  heads  of  the  customs  crowd.  Many 
agents  had  been  to  the  docks  ahead  of  him  and 
most  of  these  had  been  experts.  If  they  began 
to  get  dangerous,  political  influence  was  used 
in  having  them  pulled  off  the  job  or  money  was 
used  in  having  them  fail  to  report  any  wrong 
doing.  But  this  youngster  who  did  not  know 
the  simplest  things  about  the  customs  service — 
he  was  hardly  worthy  of  notice. 

But  during  that  week  Gard  had  not  expected 
to  become  a  customs  expert.  His  plan  for  get 
ting  results  was  founded  on  a  different  idea. 
He  had  been  hunting  for  a  man  who  suited  the 
purpose  of  his  plan,  and  had  found  him.  This 
man  was  an  Irishman  by  the  name  of  O'Toole, 
who  was  one  of  the  weighers  at  a  certain  dock 


160     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

in  Brooklyn.  He  had  in  the  back  of  his  head 
all  the  facts  that  the  special  agent  lacked.  If 
he  could  be  induced  to  cooperate,  the  case  might 
be  worked  out. 

O'Toole  was  a  man  of  fifty,  and  had  been  a 
weigher  for  eleven  years.  Gard  had  learned 
many  things  about  him.  He  had  no  family,  his 
great  enthusiasm  was  baseball,  and  his  weakness 
was  a  certainty  of  going  to  the  mat  with  John 
Barleycorn  every  third  Saturday  night.  He 
was  a  lonesome  man,  and  sour  and  cynical. 

"How  long  have  you  been  on  this  investiga 
tion!"  O'Toole  asked  Gard  before  the  conver 
sation  had  gone  far. 

* '  Just  this  week, ' '  said  the  special  agent. 

"Have  you  found  anything?"  asked  the 
weigher. 

' '  Xot  yet, ' '  said  the  special  agent. 

"Well,  if  you  want  your  job  to  last,  don't," 
said  the  Irishman. 

They  discussed  the  general  points  in  the  busi 
ness  of  weighing  cargoes  and  the  work  of  the 
force  having  it  in  charge.  But  the  special  agent 
had  gathered  the  idea  that  O'Toole  was  not  in 
sympathy  with  conditions,  that  he  was  not  a 
member  of  the  inner  circle.  Yet  an  intelligent 


BEHIND  CUSTOMS  SCREENS     161 

man  serving  as  weigher  for  eleven  years  would 
know  secrets  that  would  be  of  interest  to  the 
Government,  and  O'Toole  was  embittered.  He 
should  be  cultivated. 

The  days  of  the  following  week  the  special 
agent  spent  about  the  docks  dressed  as  a  rough 
laboring  man.  The  nights  he  spent  in  nearby 
saloons  with  the  acquaintances  he  had  made  dur 
ing  the  day.  The  idea  in  this  was  to  determine 
what  information  the  laborers  were  able  to  pick 
up  and  whether  they  could  be  used  as  inform 
ers.  Many  of  these  were  Irishmen,  as  smart 
as  the  best  of  them,  and  pretty  well  aware  of 
what  was  going  on.  From  the  gossip  of  these 
men  it  was  also  possible  to  get  many  a  flash  on 
the  character  of  the  men  higher  up.  O'Toole 
they  pronounced  honest. 

"They  won't  give  him  a  chance  to  get  on  the 
inside,"  said  one,  " because  they  are  afraid  he 
might  talk  when  he  is  drunk. ' ' 

"He  wouldn't  take  dirty  money,  anyway,7* 
insisted  another.  * '  He  is  an  honest  man. ' ' 

The  third  week  the  special  agent  was  devoting 
to  the  ball  park,  sitting  in  the  bleachers  three 
seats  back  of  0  'Toole.  He  had  determined  that 
the  Irishman  should  tell  him  the  story  of  the 


162     UNCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

customs  frauds  from  the  inside.  He  knew  that, 
to  get  on  a  basis  of  sufficient  good  feeling  to 
bring  this  about,  he  must  approach  O'Toole  on 
the  most  favorable  basis  possible.  Too  much 
care  could  not  be  taken  in  laying  the  foundation 
for  his  final  proposal  to  the  weigher.  The 
man's  love  for  baseball  first  presented  itself. 
The  agent  determined  to  become  a  fellow  fan 
with  him.  Thus  should  he  come  to  know  him 
better  and  under  most  favorable  circumstances. 

On  two  occasions  the  special  agent  bowed  to 
the  weigher  in  leaving  the  bleachers.  He  had 
thus  got  himself  identified  in  that  individual's 
mind  as  a  fellow  fan.  It  was  the  end  of  the 
second  week,  however,  before  the  conditions 
developed  that  made  just  the  opening  that  Gard 
wanted.  The  situation  worked  itself  out  on  Sat 
urday  afternoon.  The  game  had  gone  three 
innings  when  a  flurry  of  rain  threatened  to  bring 
it  to  a  close.  Then  there  was  a  downpour.  The 
people  in  the  bleachers  scurried  for  shelter. 
There  seemed  little  chance  for  the  game  being 
resumed,  and  most  of  the  bleacherites  filed  out 
under  their  umbrellas. 

Some  twenty  enthusiastic  fans  held  to  their 
seats  on  the  chance  that  the  game  would  go  on. 


BEHIND  CUSTOMS  SCREENS     163 

Among  these  were  O'Toole  and  the  special 
agent.  Both  were  drenched  to  the  skin.  Fi 
nally  the  umpire  announced  that  the  game  was 
called,  and  the  stragglers  turned  homeward. 
As  O'Toole  started  to  go  he  was  greeted  by  Spe 
cial  Agent  Gard. 

"By  jove,"  said  the  young  man,  "I  believe 
you  are  a  more  enthusiastic  fan  than  I  am." 

"They  shouldn't  have  called  the  game  for  a 
few  drops  of  water, ' '  complained  the  saturated 
weigher.  "But  let  us  go  some  place  and  get  a 
drink." 

Whereupon  the  two  dripping  fans  found  their 
way  to  a  nearby  barroom  and  talked  of  club 
standings  and  batting  averages  while  they 
warmed  up  with  copious  drafts  of  red-eyed 
liquor. 

"Boy,'T  said  the  weigher,  after  the  fourth 
drink,  "have  you  got  a  family?" 

' ' No, ' '  answered  Gard.     ' ' I  am  not  married. ' ' 

"Go  get  married,"  urged  the  older  man. 
"When  you  begin  to  get  old  and  have  only  a 
solitary  room  to  which  to  go  and  no  children 
nor  grandchildren  to  give  you  an  interest  in  the 
world,  there  is  nothing  to  live  for.  You  perform 
your  small  duties  with  a  great  void  in  the  back 


164     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

of  your  mind.  There  is  no  stage  setting  that 
makes  the  petty  play  seem  worth  while.  The 
only  relief  is  an  occasional  Saturday  night  when 
you  forget. ' ' 

The  special  agent  began  to  realize  that  the 
.weigher  was  starting  on  his  tri-weekly  fling.  It 
also  began  to  be  evident  that  he  was  of  the  order 
of  inebriates  who  indulge  in  a  debauch  of  self- 
pity  as  an  accompaniment  to  their  liquor. 

"It  always  seemed  to  me,"  said  the  special 
agent, '  *  that  a  man  could  become  so  absorbed  in 
his  work  that  it  would  fill  his  whole  life.  Par 
ticularly  should  this  be  true  when  he  has  a  task 
so  important  as  yours." 

' '  Mother  of  Mary ! ' '  exclaimed  the  Irishman. 
"Become  absorbed  in  watching  a  bunch  of 
thieves  always  at  work?  Would  you  like  to 
spend  your  declining  years  in  sitting  idly  by 
and  watching  your  employer  and  benefactor 
robbed?" 

"Why  do  this?"  said  Gard.  "Why  not  lay 
the  whole  thing  before  the  right  authority  and 
do  a  worth-while  piece  of  work  in  cleaning  up 
the  service  ? ' ' 

"Yes,  and  be  broken  and  thrown  into  the  dis 
card  to  starve,"  was  the  reply.  "I  have  seen 


BEHIND  CUSTOMS  SCREENS     165 

too  many  of  them  go  up  against  the  gang.  None 
of  it  for  O'Toole. 

''Just  one  tip  I  will  give  you,"  said  the 
weigher  after  hearing  the  special  agent's  argu 
ment  in  favor  of  lending  his  aid  to  showing  up 
the  frauds.  "If  you  will  examine  the  records 
of  Mediterranean  cargoes  you  will  find  that,  dur 
ing  the  past  ten  years,  such  cargoes  have  regu 
larly  been  about  twice  as  heavy  when  handled 
by  certain  weighers  as  when  handled  by  others. 
The  men  whose  records  show  these  cargoes 
always  light  are  the  crooks.  Those  who  show 
them  heavy  are  honest.  The  solution  is  merely 
a  matter  of  mathematics. ' ' 

With  this  semiconfidence  the  agent  contented 
himself.  He  continued  to  go  to  the  baseball 
games,  but  met  O'Toole  only  casually.  In  the 
meantime  the  records  of  weighers  were  being 
examined.  In  a  week  the  figures  were  complete. 
They  showed  these  men  divided  into  two  groups 
that  were  far  apart  with  relation  to  the  weights 
of  cargoes.  The  group  that  weighed  light  was 
the  larger. 

A  few  days  later  Gard  saw  O'Toole  after  a 
ball  game.  He  told  the  weigher  that  District 
Attorney  Stimson  wanted  to  see  him  that  night 


166     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

at  the  Federal  building,  that  the  district  attor 
ney  was  under  great  obligations  to  him  for  the 
tip  to  examine  weigher 's  records  and  wanted  to 
thank  him. 

"O'Toole,"  said  the  district  attorney  that 
night,  "this  is  a  time  when  the  Government 
needs  the  aid  of  honest  men.  We  know  that 
men  who  would  clean  up  customs  graft  have, 
in  the  past,  come  to  grief.  But  this  is  not  now 
true.  I  have  taken  up  your  case  with  the  Sec 
retary  of  the  Treasury  himself.  That  official 
asks  me  to  inform  you  that,  in  case  you  aid  us 
in  cleaning  up  this  situation,  your  place  will  not 
only  be  made  secure  but  that  you  should  figure 
that  the  service  will  be  remembered  in  the  light 
of  your  future  interests.  We  know  that  your 
record  is  clean.  We  want  your  help.  Are  you 
with  us  I" 

Agent  Gard  had  selected  the  right  man. 
O'Toole,  at  first  timid  in  his  fear  of  the  ring, 
became  an  enthusiast  over  the  task  of  weeding 
out  the  graft.  The  dominance  of  local  politi 
cians  had  no  terrors  for  him  with  Washington 
at  his  back.  The  value  of  all  he  had  learned 
in  eleven  years  at  the  scales  was  made  to  supple 
ment  the  lack  of  customs  experience  on  the  part 


BEHIND  CUSTOMS  SCREENS     167 

of  the  special  agent.  His  acquaintance  with  the 
customs  force  in  the  port  made  his  information 
invaluable.  So  enthusiastic  did  he  become  that 
he  missed  three  ball  games  in  succession  and 
went  past  four  Saturday  nights  without  his  cus 
tomary  tussle  with  the  spirits  that  bring  f  orget- 
fulness. 

O'Toole  confirmed  much  of  the  list  of  short- 
weight  employees  that  had  been  made  up.  Of 
the  derelictions  of  many  of  these  he  had  per 
sonal  knowledge.  "With  their  methods  he  was 
entirely  familiar  and  was  able  to  point  the  way 
toward  the  establishing  of  guilt  so  it  would  be 
admissible  as  evidence  and  would  secure  convic 
tions. 

That  an  individual  weigher  may  report  short 
weights  it  is  necessary  that  his  associate  at  the 
scales,  a  checker,  should  share  in  his  deceptions, 
for  the  checker  is  a  witness  of  the  record  of  the 
scales.  In  the  celebrated  short  weight  cases  of 
the  sugar  scandals,  the  checker  had  a  steel 
spring  like  a  corset  stay  that  he  thrust  into  the 
mechanism  of  the  scale  and  retarded  it,  thus 
resulting  in  a  showing  of  short  weight.  But  in 
the  case  of  the  Mediterranean  cargoes  the  fraud 
was  less  disguised.  The  scales  were  allowed  to 


168     UNCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

record  the  proper  weight,  but  the  weigher  arid 
the  checker,  in  collusion,  divided  the  figure  by 
two  in  setting  it  down.  The  system  was  both 
simple  and  effective.  It  worked  for  twenty-five 
years. 

Gard  consulted  with  O'Toole  upon  the  advisa 
bility  of  using  workmen  about  the  docks  as 
informers.  The  weigher  thought  this  could  be 
done  and  knew  a  number  of  men  who  might  be 
so  used.  A  laborer,  for  instance,  working  about 
the  scales,  was  able  to  see  the  amount  that  the 
beam  registered  at  given  times.  He  could  easily 
remember  the  big  numbers,  those  that  repre 
sented  the  thousands  of  pounds,  until  he  had  a 
chance  to  set  them  down.  He  could  thus  get  a 
rough  record  of  the  weighing  of  a  given  half 
day.  This  could  afterward  be  compared  with 
the  figures  of  the  weigher.  A  pretty  close  check 
could  thus  be  put  on  the  given  suspects. 

By  such  methods  fairly  clear  cases  were 
obtained  against  given  weighers  and  checkers. 
After  much  information  was  gathered  certain 
guilty  men  would  be  selected  who  would  be  given 
chances  to  tell  all  about  their  knowledge  of  the 
frauds.  These  men  would  be  given  immunity. 
Thus  would  a  few  of  the  guilty  escape  punish- 


BEHIND  CUSTOMS  SCREENS     169 

merit;  but  thus,  also,  would  the  Government 
learn  all  the  details  of  the  frauds  that  it  might 
be  able  to  provide  effectually  against  them. 

Special  agents  were  set  to  watch  every  sus 
pect,  to  learn  his  manner  of  life,  how  he  spent 
his  money,  whether  he  could  be  trapped"  on  the 
outside.  When  the  Government  needed  the  con 
fession  of  a  given  man  he  would  be  called  upon 
and  talked  to  in  some  such  manner  as  this : 

*  *  You,  as  checker,  worked  with  Weigher  Smith 
on  a  given  cargo.  The  weights  shown  by  the 
scales  Smith  divided  by  two  and  you  passed 
them.  That  night  a  messenger  was  sent  to  Cos- 
tello  with  a  statement  of  the  short  weight  he  had 
passed.  Costello  paid  half  the  duty  on  this 
short  weight.  You  and  the  weigher  split  on  the 
basis  of  forty,  sixty. 

"We  know  of  a  score  of  offenses  equally  glar 
ing  on  your  part.  The  Government  needs  you 
as  a  witness.  Under  the  circumstances  do  you 
not  think  it  would  be  advisable  for  you  to  go 
with  me  to  the  district  attorney  and  make  a 
complete  statement  of  all  you  know  about  cus 
toms  frauds?" 

The  man  that  the  Government  wanted  usually 
came  through  with  all  he  knew.  So  were  the 


170     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

cases  made  absolute  and  so  were  all  the  methods 
of  graft  revealed.  Eleven  weighers  and  check 
ers  were  convicted  and  sent  to  the  penitentiary. 
Many  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  in  duties 
that  had  been  avoided  were  assessed  against  and 
paid  by  importers.  The  Government  was  leni 
ent  with  most  of  these  because  of  its  chagrin 
over  the  part  played  by  its  representatives  and 
because  the  initiative  in  the  offending  had  usu 
ally  been  taken  by  Government  agents. 

Altogether  the  cleaning  up  of  the  customs 
scandals  in  the  port  of  New  York  was  a  most 
complicated  task.  The  work  of  Special  Agent 
Gard  is  but  a  fragment  of  it,  but  was  vastly 
important  and  decidedly  typical  of  the  problem 
in  hand  and  its  solution. 


IX 

WITH   THE   BEVOLUTIOET   MAKERS 

THE  Isla  Dolorosa  is  in  the  Rio  Grande 
River  a  few  miles  below  El  Paso.    It 
is  Mexican  territory  and  is  owned  by  an 
aged  ranchman  named  Jose  Encino.    If  one 
should  start  a  camp  fire  anywhere  on  the  island 
he  would  be  running  a  monstrous  risk,  for  so 
great  is  the  quantity  of  ammunition  that  has 
been  smuggled  thus  far  on  its  way  to  revolution 
ary  war  and  buried,  that  any  such  fire  might 
cause  a  huge  explosion. 

It  was  in  the  moonshine  of  a  clear  November 
night  in  1911  that  a  boat  drifted  down  the  Eio 
Grande  from  the  American  side,  pulled  up 
among  the  cattails  of  the  north  shore  of  the 
island  and  was  beached  beneath  a  great  cotton- 
wood  tree  that  stood  out  against  the  sky  as  a 
landmark.  Two  men  stepped  ashore  and  waited 
in  the  shadows.  Fifteen  minutes  later  two  rid* 

171 


172     UNCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

ers  splashed  into  the  water  froni  the  Mexican 
side,  floundered  through  the  stream  that  but 
came  to  the  stirrups,  and  pointed  the  noses  of 
their  horses  for  the  same  huge  tree.  Nearing  it 
they  halted. 

"Keyes,"  said  a  voice  from  the  darkness. 

" Gomez,"  responded  a  rider. 

The  test  of  this  interchange  seemed  to  have 
been  satisfactory  for  a  small,  dark  man 
emerged  from  the  shadow  of  the  cottonwood 
and  helped  the  riders  to  dismount.  One  of 
these  later  proved  to  be  a  woman  who  was 
treated  with  great  courtesy  by  the  small  man. 
When  the  horses  were  tied  the  four  seated 
themselves  beneath  the  tree  in  a  spot  where  the 
underbrush  shut  out  the  world.  From  the  fit 
ful  light  of  an  occasional  match  that  served  to 
light  the  eternal  cigarettes  of  these  Mexicans, 
an  observer,  if  it  had  been  possible  for  one  to 
have  looked  on,  might  have  studied  four  inter 
esting  faces. 

The  bearer  of  news  and  evidently  the  leader 
of  the  party  was  the  small,  dark  man  already 
mentioned.  As  it  afterward  developed  he  was 
Dr.  Eafael  Flores  of  El  Paso.  Doctor  Flores, 
as  the  flicker  of  a  match  revealed,  was  a  man  of 


REVOLUTION  MAKERS       173 

some  sixty  years  of  age,  a  thin,  wiry  individual 
with  refined  and  almost  classic  features.  He 
was  a  practising  physician,  a  citizen  of  means 
and  repute  in  the  border  city.  The  man  who 
had  come  with  him  in  the  boat  was  named  Coma- 
cho.  He  was  short,  square  built,  deeply  pock 
marked.  He  was  notorious  along  the  border, 
particularly  in  Lower  California.  He  was  an 
anarchist  and  an  expert  with  explosives  and  was 
suspected  of  having  been  connected  with  many 
dire  deeds. 

The  man  who  came  on  horseback  was  huge 
and  heavy  and  wore  always  a  red  flannel  shirt. 
He  it  was  who  had  led  the  assault  on  Juarez 
when  the  troops  of  Francisco  Villa  had  captured 
that  city  early  in  the  Madero  campaign.  He  it 
was  who  inflicted  some  of  the  early  atrocities 
upon  prisoners,  who  plied  the  torch  and  who 
had  to  be  discouraged  in  his  activities  by  even 
his  bandit  associates.  "Bed  Shirt"  Pena  he 
had  since  been  called.  His  specialty  was  smug 
gling  fire  arms  over  the  border.  He  had  sixty 
loyal  followers  in  the  vicinity  of  El  Carmen. 

And  the  woman!  Senorita  Josef  a  Calderon 
was  the  name  by  which  she  was  known.  She 
was  from  the  interior,  was  something  of  a  mys- 


UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

tery  never  entirely  understood,  but  the  current 
belief  was  that  she  was  a  sister  of  General 
Orozco.  That  uncontrolled  chief  of  rebels  was 
even  then  stationed  at  Juarez  in  command  of 
Madero  troops  and  was  vacillating  between  alle 
giance  to  the  new  president  and  the  leading  of  a 
revolt  against  him.  Senorita  Calderon,  veiled, 
dark-eyed,  slim  as  a  cactus,  was  thought  to  be  his 
messenger. 

" There  is  news,"  said  Doctor  Flores,  as  soon 
as  the  party  had  settled  itself.  ' '  General  Reyes 
is  in  San  Antonio.  He  arrived  at  New  Orleans 
a  week  ago,  came  on  to  San  Antonio  where  he 
was  given  a  great  demonstration.  He  has 
opened  revolutionary  headquarters  there  and 
every  mail  brings  letters  and  every  train  brings 
messengers  assuring  him  of  support  in  over 
throwing  Madero.  He  has  arranged  for  money 
to  finance  the  movement.  The  friends  of  Emi- 
lio  Vasquez  Gomez  are  busily  at  work  along  the 
border.  The  American  financial  interests  in 
Mexico  are  back  of  us.  We  are  to  open  head 
quarters  in  El  Paso  and  begin  the  active  organi 
zation  of  our  forces." 

1  'But  the  money,"  said  "Bed  Shirt"  Pena. 


REVOLUTION  MAKERS       175 

"We  can  do  nothing  until  we  have  money  with 
which  to  buy  ammunition. ' ' 

"The  money,"  assured  the  doctor,  "is  to  be 
immediately  forthcoming.  In  that  connection  I 
have  a  mission  for  the  Senorita  Calderon.  She 
is  to  go  immediately  to  San  Antonio  to  report  to 
the  chief  and  to  get  the  money. ' ' 

"When  the  money  arrives,"  said  Comacho, 
the  anarchist,  "all  things  will  be  possible. 
There  is  dynamite  cached  at  Newman  and  more 
at  Alamagordo.  Eamon  Sanchez  has  other 
stores  of  it  at  Phcenix.  We  can  start  action  at 
half  a  dozen  points  and  wake  every  dozing  peon 
in  Mexico.  But  provide  the  money,  doctor,  and 
I  will  guarantee  to  wake  up  two  nations.  There 
is  little  question  of  getting  results  either 
through  the  overthrow  of  Madero  or  interven 
tion  by  the  United  States." 

"Likewise  will  the  arms  begin  to  cross  the 
river  as  soon  as  they  may  be  bought,"  volun 
teered  Pena.  "I  have  many  men  ready  to  tra 
vel  back  and  forth  and  each  will  carry  a  gun  and 
a  box  of  cartridges  each  trip. ' ' 

"And  the  senorita?"  asked  Doctor  Flores. 
"Can  she  go  for  us  to  San  Antonio?" 


176     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

"As  the  senor  wishes,"  said  that  young 
woman.  "But  where  shall  I  report  on  my 
return?" 

"Back  of  my  residence,"  said  the  doctor, 
1 '  there  is  a  small  building  opening  into  the  alley. 
There  are  no  windows.  We  will  meet  there." 

After  a  long  discussion  of  the  details  of  the 
organization  of  the  junta,  this  first  gathering  of 
the  arch-conspirators  broke  up. 

It  was  a  week  after  this  meeting  in  the  Rio 
Grande  that  Archie  Dobbs,  special  agent  of  the 
Department  of  Justice,  assigned  particularly 
to  the  Mexican  border  to  look  after  violations 
of  the  neutrality  laws,  began  to  notice  the  fre 
quency  with  which  groups  of  Mexicans  were  to 
be  seen  engaged  in  earnest  conversation  in  the 
streets  of  El  Paso.  About  the  Orndorif  hotel 
there  were  in  evidence  groups  of  wealthy 
appearing  grandees,  such  as  own  great  ranches 
beyond  the  border.  Idling  about  the  Mexican 
saloons  were  many  big-hatted  vaqueros,  such  as 
make  up  the  armies  of  any  revolutionary  move 
ment  when  trouble  starts  across  the  line. 

Dobbs  went  to  see  Juan  Ortego.  This  young 
son  of  Chihuahua  was  one  of  the  dependable 
men  of  Madero.  Ortego  was  a  member  of  the 


REVOLUTION  MAKERS       177 

personal  secret  service  of  the  new  president  and 
his  station  at  El  Paso  was  regarded  as  import 
ant  as  an  outpost  of  trouble  for  the  govern 
ment. 

"What  is  in  the  air?"  asked  the  American 
special  agent  of  Ortego. 

4  *  Eevolution, ' '  said  the  Mexican. 

"Whom  have  they  got?" 

"Reyes,  Gomez,  probably  Orozco,  possibly 
Villa,"  said  Ortego. 

"Have  you  got  an  informer  among  them?" 
Dobbs  asked. 

"No,  I  have  failed  in  that  respect,"  was  the 
answer. 

'  *  Who  is  the  one  military  leader  that  Madero 
can  trust  I ' '  Dobbs  wanted  to  know. 

The  Mexican  secret  service  man  recommended 
General  Herrera  at  Chihuahua.  He  also  stated 
that  Doctor  Flores  was  the  Reyes  representative 
at  El  Paso. 

Archie  Dobbs  acted  at  once.  The  Depart 
ment  of  Justice  has  its  special  agents  who  will 
fit  into  almost  any  condition  that  is  likely  to 
arise.  Billy  Gard,  for  instance,  had  been 
assigned  to  this  work  on  the  Mexican  border 
because  of  his  knowledge  of  Spanish.  As  he 


178     UXCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

was  growing  up  his  father  had  served  for  many 
years  in  the  consular  service  and  Billy  had 
become  as  a  native  of  the  Latin  countries.  It 
had  been  his  pride  as  a  lad  to  assume  every 
characteristic  of  the  land  to  which  his  father 
was  assigned  and  it  was  probably  this  dissemb 
ling  that  led  him  into  the  detective  game. 
With  a  bit  of  a  Mexican  touch  to  his  wearing 
apparel  and  a  covering  of  alkali  dust  he  now 
became  a  typical  son  of  the  land  of  the  south. 

Such  was  the  appearance  presented  by  Gard 
when,  two  days  after  the  talk  between  the  secret 
service  men  of  two  nations,  he  came  into  El 
Paso  from  the  South.  He  bore  credentials 
from  General  Herrera  which  it  had  been  possi 
ble  for  him  to  get  through  Madero's  secret 
service  man,  Juan  Ortego.  He  appeared  much 
worn  and  dust-covered  when  he  began  a  search 
of  El  Paso  for  Doctor  Flores.  Having  found 
that  gentleman  in  consultation  with  a  party  of 
ranch  owners  at  the  Orndorff  hotel,  he  pre 
sented  himself  and  asked  for  a  word  in  private 
with  the  junta  chief. 

"I  am  from  General  Herrera,"  said  Gard. 
"I  bring  to  you  his  greetings  and  these  cre 
dentials  which  will  assure  you  that  you  may 


REVOLUTION  MAKERS        179 

treat  with  me  in  confidence.  He  bids  me  say 
that  he  holds  General  Eeyes  in  a  deferential 
respect  which  he  gives  to  no  other  living  Mexi 
can.  He  awaits  an  opportunity  to  cooperate 
with  you." 

This  news  was,  to  Flores,  the  hest  he  had 
heard  since  he  organized  the  junta.  He  was  a 
visionary  enthusiast  such  as  would  accept  such 
a  declaration  without  further  confirmation. 
Assurances  had  come  from  many  sources  of 
support  to  Eeyes  who,  in  reality,  occupied  an 
enviable  position  in  the  hearts  of  the  Mexican 
people.  But  Herrera,  the  Madero  general,  who 
had  been  regarded  as  firmly  against  them! 
His  coming  over  was  too  good  to  believe.  The 
doctor  embraced  the  young  man,  according  to 
the  Mexican  custom,  and  kissed  him  first  on  one 
cheek  and  then  on  the  other. 

Thus  did  a  special  agent  of  the  United  States 
become  a  member  of  a  Mexican  revolutionary 
junta. 

Through  Gard  the  Department  of  Justice 
soon  had  all  the  particulars  of  the  Eeyes  revo 
lution  as  far  as  they  were  known  to  the  El  Paso 
junta.  It  knew  that  the  aged  general  had  been 
promised  support  from  many  sources,  that  he 


180     UNCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

had  been  provided  with  considerable  sums  of 
money,  that  arms  had  been  bought  in  hundred 
lots  from  dealers  all  along  the  border,  that 
these  were  being  doled  out  to  individuals  who 
were  to  cross  over  the  border  at  a  given  time 
and  form  the  nucleus  of  the  revolution.  In  El 
Paso  some  two  hundred  men  had  already  been 
thus  provided.  These  men  were  being  main 
tained  at  boarding  houses  about  town  and  were 
being  handed  regularly  small  sums  of  money. 
Gard  met  every  day  with  the  members  of  the 
junta  and  talked  over  the  details  of  these  mat 
ters. 

In  the  little  building  which  had  no  windows 
and  which  stood  back  of  Doctor  Flores'  house, 
Gard  also  met  the  individuals  who  were  the 
firebrands  of  the  revolution.  "Bed  Shirt" 
Pena  was  always  there  and  was  steadily  en 
gaged  in  smuggling  ammunition  across  the 
border.  The  pock-marked  anarchist,  Comacho, 
was  maturing  his  spectacular  plans.  Sefiorita 
Josefa  Calderon,  slim  as  a  cactus,  came  now 
and  then,  with  a  message  from  Eeyes  or 
Orozco.  Often  she  brought  large  sums  of 
money.  Gard  once  accompanied  her  to  Juarez 
and  used  all  his  charms  in  an  effort  to  develop 


REVOLUTION  MAKERS       181 

a  love  affair  with  her,  but  in  vain.  He  after 
ward  learned  that  she  was  mourning  a  sweet 
heart  who  had  died  in  fighting  Madero  and  was 
devoting  herself  to  this  cause  in  hope  of  re 
venge. 

Toward  the  end  of  December  the  plans  for 
the  revolution  grew  near  maturity.  General 
Reyes  was  to  slip  out  of  San  Antonio  and  across 
the  Rio  Grande  where  he  was  to  pick  up  his 
recruits  enlisted  on  the  American  side  and 
those  on  the  Mexican  side  who  had  promised  to 
join  with  him.  At  the  psychological  moment 
Pena  of  the  red  shirt,  and  Comacho,  the 
anarchist,  were  to  put  on  performances  so 
spectacular  as  to  attract  the  attention  of  the 
world. 

Comacho  had  his  dynamiting  plans  well  de 
veloped.  Personally  he  intended  to  place  a 
bomb  under  the  international  bridge  at  El 
Paso.  An  associate  was  to  perform  the  same 
service  with  relation  to  the  American  customs 
house  at  Nogales,  and  the  consulate  at  Laredo 
was  to  be  blown  up. 

While  Comacho  was  performing  these  out 
rages,  "Red  Shirt"  Pena  was  to  be  busied  in 
the  fine  art  of  murder.  The  sheriff  of  El  Paso, 


182     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

Juan  Ortego,  and  Archie  Dobbs  were  the  men 
against  whom  the  capacities  of  Pena  as  a  killer 
were  to  be  directed.  But  failing  these  he  was 
to  run  amuck  and  do  whatever  damage  he  could. 
Any  representative  of  the  American  army,  any 
Madero  official,  was  to  be  regarded  as  a  fair 
mark.  The  object  was  to  at  least  create  a  great 
sensation  to  advertise  the  new  revolution,  and 
possibly  to  bring  about  intervention.  At  any 
rate  the  border  should  be  awakened. 

With  all  this  information  in  hand  the  United 
States  authorities  were  ready  to  act.  They 
wanted,  however,  to  time  their  coup  in  such  a 
way  as  to  have  the  most  discouraging  effect 
possible  upon  the  revolutionists.  With  this 
idea  in  mind  they  postponed  making  arrests 
until  the  last  moment. 

The  revolutionists  were  to  be  taken  into  cus 
tody  by  Captain  Hughes  of  the  Texas  Rangers. 
There  were  some  fifteen  of  the  active  plotters 
that  should  be  arrested  and  the  Ranger  force 
was  the  best  fitted  agency  on  the  border  to  cope 
with  these.  Every  man  was  known  to  the  Ran 
gers  and  all  were  being  kept  pretty  well  located. 

The  manner  of  making  these  arrests  was  pe 
culiar  to  this  cowboy  police  of  the  Southwest, 


REVOLUTION  MAKERS       183 

The  plan  was  that,  when  the  time  to  strike 
should  come,  operations  should  begin  at  the 
little  building  without  windows  where  the  ring 
leaders  of  the  revolutionists  gathered.  These 
should  be  arrested,  none  being  allowed  to  es 
cape  and  give  the  alarm.  They  should  all  be 
put  into  a  wagon,  inclosed  with  white  canvas, 
such  as  is  common  in  the  Southwest  and  which 
would  attract  no  attention  in  passing  through 
the  streets.  This  wagon,  with  two  or  three 
Eangers  aboard  and  others  riding  carelessly- 
near  it,  should  then  drive  about  El  Paso,  pick 
ing  up  a  man  here  and  another  there  until  all 
those  wanted  were  under  the  white  canvas.  So 
was  it  planned  that  a  clean  sweep  of  the  revo 
lutionists  should  be  made  in  a  manner  of  raid 
that  might  seem  queer  to  those  accustomed  to 
the  methods  of  metropolitan  police  but  which 
was  intended  to  accomplish  its  purpose. 

But  as  far  as  Billy  Gard  was  concerned,  the 
raid  came  near  coming  too  late.  The  position 
of  Gard,  the  American  special  agent,  in  revo 
lution  headquarters  as  a  Mexican  conspirator, 
was  never  one  of  especial  security.  There  was 
the  danger  of  his  identity  being  found  out, 
which  would  not  only  spoil  his  case  but  might 


184     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

result  in  personal  violence  being  done  him,  as 
his  associates  were  not  men  to  trifle  with. 
There  was  the  difficulty  of  getting  his  informa 
tion  to  Archie  Dobbs  and  thence  to  the  depart 
ment  at  Washington  without  his  connection 
being  discovered.  Finally  there  was  his  part 
to  be  played  in  the  arrests. 

Eventually  the  time  came  to  strike.  General 
Eeyes  had  disappeared  from  San  Antonio  and 
was  believed  to  be  fleeing  for  the  Mexican  bor 
der.  The  order  was  issued  from  Washington 
to  intercept  and  arrest  any  of  the  Reyes  party 
that  might  be  found  at  any  border  points.  The 
trap  was  to  be  sprung  at  El  Paso. 

On  that  morning,  December  22,  1911,  Billy 
Gard  reported  at  the  windowless  building  at 
ten  o'clock.  Doctor  Flores  was  there  and  was 
soon  joined  by  Comacho,  the  dynamiter.  Pres 
ently  a  ranchman  from  Sonora  was  admitted. 
Senorita  Calderon  was  expected  from  San  An 
tonio  with  additional  funds,  and  Pena  and 
other  moving  spirits  were  to  drop  in. 

"Is  there  any  news  from  General  Herrera?" 
Doctor  Flores  asked  Gard. 

That  young  man  reported  that  the  Her 
rera  troops  would  go  over  to  General  Reyes  as 


REVOLUTION  MAKERS       185 

soon  as  his  forces   started  into  the  interior. 

"And  is  senor,  the  dynamiter,  ready  to  per 
form  his  service  to  the  cause  of  liberty?"  asked 
the  doctor  of  Comacho. 

"The  noise  we  will  make  will  be  heard  from 
Tia  Juana  to  Brownsville,"  responded  that  in 
flammatory  and  enthusiastic  individual. 

"Pena  is  now  on  the  street  ready  to  strike," 
stated  the  leader.  "This  afternoon  Keyes  will 
cross  the  Rio  Grande  and,  pish !  the  powder  will 
be  ignited." 

At  this  moment  a  careful  knock  was  heard  at 
the  one  entrance  to  the  rendezvous,  and  the 
doctor,  who  always  sat  with  his  back  against 
this  door,  opened  it  an  inch.  He  recognized 
the  man  outside  and  welcomed  him.  He  ush 
ered  him  inside  and  began  his  presentation  to 
those  already  assembled.  He  was  a  revolu 
tionist  from  Los  Angeles  who  had  but  just 
arrived. 

The  entrance  of  the  visitor  would  have  been 
of  no  great  importance  to  the  detective  but  for 
one  fact — he  was  from  Los  Angeles.  Gard  had 
done  much  work  in  Los  Angeles  and  a  few  of 
the  members  of  the  revolutionary  junta  there 
had  learned  his  identity.  The  visitor  was  one 


186     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

of  that  few.  If  Gard  were  recognized  lie  would 
be  exposed  and  in  this  desperate  company 
would  be  in  a  delicate  position. 

The  light  in  the  windowless  building  was 
very  dim  and  the  stranger  had  come  in  from 
the  sunlight.  His  eyes  were  not  adjusted  to  the 
darkened  apartment  and  he  therefore  did  not 
recognize  the  special  agent  when  presented  to 
Mm.  Appreciating  the  reason  for  this  lack  of 
recognition,  Gard  made  an  excuse  for  going  out 
and  approached  the  door.  Flores  again  sat 
with  his  back  against  it.  When  the  young  man 
gave  his  excuse  for  wanting  to  go  the  doctor 
waved  him  aside  and  stated  that  he  desired  that 
he  should  hear  the  report  of  the  man  from  Los 
Angeles.  Gard  dared  insist  only  to  a  reason 
able  extent.  Doctor  Flores  would  not  hear  of 
Ms  departure.  Quietly  he  settled  into  the 
remotest  and  darkest  corner. 

The  man  from  Los  Angeles  began  to  tell  of 
the  part  he  had  played  in  lighting  the  fuse  that 
was  about  to  start  a  revolution.  His  remarks 
were  addressed  to  Doctor  Flores  and  to  Coma- 
cho,  the  dynamiter,  an  associate  of  Ms.  The 
man  in  the  corner  was  given  little  attention. 
But  as  the  talker's  vision  became  adjusted  to 


REVOLUTION  MAKERS       187 

the  darkened  room,  he  turned  his  glance  occa 
sionally  in  the  direction  of  the  special  agent. 

That  young  man  sat  as  one  hypnotized  with 
the  possibilities  of  the  situation.  He  felt  very 
sure  that,  as  time  passed,  the  visitor's  eyesight 
would  adjust  itself  and  he  would  be  recognized. 
His  mind  ran  ahead  and  saw  the  scene  that 
would  then  be  precipitated.  The  thrill  of  it 
held  him  taut,  ready  for  any  emergency. 

It  was  the  third  time  that  the  eye  of  the  visi 
tor  passed  him  that  it  lingered  a  moment  ques- 
tioningly,  and  passed  on.  He  looked  at  the 
dynamiter  during  a  long  explanation  of  some 
detail  of  bomb  making  before  his  glance  again 
returned  to  Gard.  By  this  time  his  eyesight 
had  become  entirely  readjusted. 

He  started  forward,  mouth  agape.  He 
sprang  to  his  feet.  He  pointed  an  accusing 
finger  at  the  special  agent  and  fairly  screamed: 

"By  the  Holy  Virgin,  a  spy,  a  traitor !  He  is 
an  agent  of  the  perfidious  United  States.  He  is 
a  detective,  an  informer.  I  knew  him  in  Los 
Angeles.  He  peeped  into  our  windows  and 
stole  our  papers.  He  has  already  betrayed  you 
and  the  cause." 

A  vile  oath  was  ripped  from  the  throat  of 


188     UNCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

the  pock-marked  dynamiter.  The  Mexican 
ranchman  stood  agape.  The  nervous  little  doc 
tor  sprang  to  his  feet  and  started  as  if  to  spring 
at  the  throat  of  the  special  agent.  But  as  he 
advanced  he  found  himself  looking  into  the  muz 
zle  of  a  big  American  pistol.  He  recoiled. 

"Don't  make  a  great  mistake,"  said  Gard. 
"What  this  man  says  may  be  true  and  it  may 
not.  Granting  that  it  is  true  I  am  then  in  the 
best  position  right  now  I  could  hope  to  be  in. 
If  one  of  you  advances  a  step  toward  me  I  will 
fire.  None  of  you  dare  fire  upon  me,  as  the 
shots  that  would  follow  would  expose  you. 
Now  sit  tight  and  talk  business.  What  do  you 
propose  to  do  about  it?" 

"Gringo  pig  of  a  spy,  you  shall  die  and  be 
fed  to  the  buzzards !"  hissed  the  dynamiter. 

"Mother  of  Mary,  we  have  been  betrayed!" 
almost  sobbed  the  little  doctor. 

"It  may  not  be  as  bad  as  it  seems,"  argued 
Gard,  talking  against  time.  "The  four  of  you 
should  be  able  to  get  me  if  you  insist  on  shoot 
ing  it  out.  I  will  get  one  or  two  of  you,  how 
ever,  and  the  police  will  get  the  rest.  I  would 
suggest  that  it  would  be  wiser  for  you  to  let  me 


REVOLUTION  MAKERS        189 

back  slowly  out  of  that  door  and  that  you  all 
beat  it  for  Mexico." 

The  little  doctor  stiffened  stubbornly  against 
the  one  exit,  but  before  his  proposition  could  be 
seriously  considered  there  came  a  loud  rapping 
at  the  door.  The  noise  of  it  sounded  as  though 
it  were  made  with  the  butt  of  a  revolver.  The 
Mexicans  present  stood  transfixed  with  fear. 
The  knocking  was  repeated  with  greater  vigor. 
Then  a  drawling  Texas  voice  sang  out : 

"Oh,  you  greasers,  lift  the  latch.  This  ain't 
no  way  to  treat  visitors." 

" Break  it  in,  Captain,"  called  out  Gard,  who 
recognized  the  voice  of  the  Banger  chief. 
"This  bunch  is  half  captured  already." 

Then  came  the  creaking  of  door  hinges  as 
though  a  great  weight  was  being  thrown  against 
them  and,  finally,  a  mighty  crash.  As  the  door 
came  in  nothing  could  be  seen  but  the  blank  side 
of  a  thick  cotton  mattress.  Few  other  things 
will  stop  bullets  like  a  cotton  mattress  and  it  is 
therefore  an  excellent  breastwork  in  an  attack 
which  is  likely  to  be  met  by  bullets  fired  through 
a  door.  This  was  not  the  first  time  such  an 
object  had  been  used  in  Eanger  strategy. 


190     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

Presently  the  head  of  a  Ranger  peered  cau 
tiously  around  the  mattress  and  a  request  for  a 
parley  was  made.  The  Mexicans  decided  upon 
discretion  and  surrendered  without  a  fight. 
Gard  was  thus  relieved  of  a  very  delicate  situa 
tion. 

The  four  prisoners  from  the  windowless 
house  were  loaded  into  the  white-topped  wagon. 
It  moved  on  unostentatiously  to  other  parts  of 
the  city  and  around  it  the  Hanger  dragnet 
tightened.  *  *  Bed  Shirt ' '  Pena  was  found  in  the 
act  of  boarding  a  street  car  to  cross  the  bridge 
into  Juarez.  He  made  fight  but  a  Ranger 
floored  him  with  a  blow  from  a  big  forty-five 
six-shooter.  In  two  hours  fifteen  of  the  ring 
leaders  of  the  El  Paso  revolutionists  were 
behind  prison  bars  and  any  expedition  that 
might  have  been  launched  in  this  vicinity  was 
leaderless. 

At  Brownsville  a  similar  dragnet  had  oper 
ated  at  about  the  same  time.  General  Reyes 
himself  succeeded  in  getting  across  into  Mexico. 
But  the  leaders  from  the  American  side  had 
been  discouraged  and  failed  to  follow  him  even 
where  they  were  not  under  arrest.  The  Mexi 
cans  did  not  rally  to  the  aged  general's  cause 


REVOLUTION  MAKERS        191 

after  lie  entered  Ms  native  land,  as  had  been 
expected.  Discouraged  and  heartbroken  he 
surrendered  to  the  Madero  authorities  a  few 
days  later  at  the  little  town  of  Linares,  and  his 
revolution  was  at  an  end. 


THE   ELUSIVE   FUGITIVE 

WHEN  one  individual  in  a  great  world 
goes  forth  secretively  to  hide  him 
self  and  a  second  man  starts  forth 
to  find  him,  it  would  appear  that  all  the  advan 
tage  was  with  the  fugitive.    Particularly  would 
this  seem  to  be  the  case  when  the  man  in  flight 
is  of  a  high  degree  of  intelligence  and  is  thor 
oughly  informed  as  to  the  methods  that  will  be 
employed  in  the  pursuit. 

Yet  the  detective  who  knows  his  business  and 
who  sticks  to  the  trail  month  after  month  nearly 
always  turns  up  his  man.  He  may  do  this  by 
following  out,  one  after  another,  the  probabili 
ties  in  the  case.  There  is  almost  no  man  who 
will  refrain  from  performing  some  one  of  those 
everyday  actions  that  it  is  but  natural  he  should 
take.  There  is  almost  no  man  who  will  flee 
without  leaving  a  trail  behind  himself.  If  he  is 
the  criminal  genius  who  succeeds  in  doing  all 

192 


THE  ELUSIVE  FUGITIVE     193 

these  things,  there  is  the  element  of  chance  that 
will  turn  up  some  bit  of  information  which  will 
put  the  vigilant  sleuth  on  his  track.  For  there 
are  many  pulses  upon  which  the  detective  ringer 
may  rest  long  after  the  criminal  gets  to  feel  so 
secure  as  to  become  careless.  Particularly  is 
this  true  of  the  sleuths  of  the  Federal  Govern 
ment,  whose  instructions  are  never  to  abandon 
the  pursuit  of  an  escaped  criminal. 

There  is  the  case  of  Alexander  Berliner,  for 
instance.  He  was  a  prince  of  frauds,  a  man  of 
exceptional  ability,  a  cosmopolitan,  one  who 
knew  detective  methods,  a  man  with  money. 
He  had  a  month  the  start  of  Billy  Gard  of  the 
Federal  Department  of  Justice.  He  knew  that 
the  special  agent  was  after  him.  He  appreci 
ated  the  danger  of  a  long  term  in  prison  if  he 
were  caught. 

Would  you  think,  under  the  circumstances, 
that  the  detective  in  the  case  could  make  suffi 
cient  splash  among  the  tides  of  humanity  that 
surge  around  a  great  world  to  disturb  the  tran 
quillity  of  Berliner1?  Let  us  see  how  the  case 
developed. 

Gard  had  the  advantage  of  having  got  "a 
spot"  on  Berliner.  That  is  to  say,  he  had  seen 


194     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

him.  Berliner  was  a  customs  broker.  His 
business  was  to  act  as  agent  for  American  pur 
chasers  and  European  dealers.  He  knew  his 
Europe  and  he  knew  New  York.  The  details  of 
customs  regulations  and  duties  to  be  paid  were 
an  open  book  to  him.  He  spoke  many  lan 
guages  and  had  customers  among  the  wealthiest 
people  in  America. 

It  was  when  a  mere  suspicion  arose  as  to  the 
fidelity  with  which  he  was  paying  his  duties  that 
Billy  Gard,  on  some  pretext,  went  to  see  him. 
A  large,  upstanding,  white-haired  man  he  was — > 
unusually  handsome  and  dominant. 

"May  I  ask,"  said  Gard,  "if  you  think  table 
linens  of  good  quality  could  be  procured  from 
Ireland  within  six  weeks  1  My  sister  is  opening 
an  establishment  at  that  time  and  is  not  satisfied 
with  the  offerings  here. ' ' 

"Who  is  your  sister?"  asked  Berliner,  rather 
more  directly  than  a  customer  would  expect  to 
be  questioned  by  a  broker. 

"Mrs.  Jonathan  Moulton,"  said  the  special 
agent  glibly,  giving  the  name  of  a  woman  friend. 
"She  lives  in  Seventy-second  Street." 

"Do  you  mind  if  I  call  her  for  a  confirma- 


THE  ELUSIVE  FUGITIVE     195 

tion  of  your  inquiry  I ' '  said  the  broker,  still  non 
committal. 

"Such  a  request  is  not  usually  addressed  t0 
a  prospective  customer,"  said  Gard,  appearing 
a  bit  nettled,  "but  I  have  no  objection  what 
ever.  ' ' 

As  a  matter  of  fact  the  special  agent  was  very 
much  disconcerted.  He  had  foreseen  the  possi 
bility  of  having  to  use  the  name  of  some  indi 
vidual  who  might  afterward  be  called  upon  to 
verify  the  genuineness  of  his  interest  in  linens. 
Mrs.  Moulton  was  a  good  friend  who  would  be 
entirely  willing  to  help  him  in  a  little  deception 
of  this  sort,  but  he  had  not  as  yet  coached  her 
as  to  the  part  she  might  be  called  upon  to  play. 
He  had  thought  there  would  be  plenty  of  time 
later  if  it  became  necessary  to  identify  the  sup 
posed  customer.  But  Berliner  was  evidently 
suspicious  of  bright  young  men  who  called  upon 
him.  He  evidently  knew  that  he  was  under 
investigation.  Gard's  particular  hope,  if  the 
broker  insisted  on  calling  his  alleged  sister,  was 
;that  he  would  find  that  she  was  not  at  home. 

But  luck  was  not  with  him.  Mrs.  Moulton. 
iherself  answered  the  telephone. 


196     UNCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

"May  I  ask,"  said  the  broker,  "if  you  will 
give  me  the  name  of  the  young  man  whom  you 
have  commissioned  to  buy  linens  for  you?" 

The  manner  in  which  the  question  was  put, 
Gard  realized,  gave  Mrs.  Moulton  no  intimation 
of  the  situation.  He  knew  she  was  sufficiently 
clever  to  be  entirely  noncommittal  if  the  broker 
mentioned  his  name.  But  Berliner  was  too 
shrewd  for  this. 

"You  have  authorized  no  one  to  buy  for 
you?"  the  broker  was  saying.  "You  are  not  in 
the  market  for  linens  at  all?  I  see.  There 
must  have  been  some  mistake." 

Berliner  turned  to  his  caller. 

"Young  Mr.  Detective,"  he  said,  urbanely, 
"your  work  is  a  bit  amateurish.  May  I  present 
you  with  your  hat?  I  trust  there  will  be  no 
occasion  for  our  acquaintance  to  develop  fur 
ther." 

The  case  against  Berliner  did  not  come  to 
a  crisis  immediately.  It  was  two  months  later 
that  the  customs  agents  reported  that  he  was 
gone  and  that  they  had  evidence  that  he  had 
long  resorted  to  undervaluing  the  imports  of  his 
clients.  By  getting  an  article  through  the  cus- 


THE  ELUSIVE  FUGITIVE     197 

toms  house  at  less  than  its  value,  he  would 
defraud  the  Government  of  just  the  difference 
between  the  amount  paid  and  the  amount  that 
should  have  been  paid.  But  this  money  was 
not  saved  for  his  customer.  That  individual 
was  charged  the  full  amount  due  and  the  broker 
pocketed  the  difference.  There  was  evidence 
that  the  Government  had  lost  $100,000  through 
these  operations. 

Because  Gard  had  seen  the  customs  broker 
he  was  assigned  to  the  capture  of  the  fugitive. 
He  set  about  the  task  methodically. 

The  special  agent  diligently  searched  out 
every  one  of  Berliner's  intimates.  There  was 
a  wife  and  brother  to  begin  with.  It  is  the  A, 
B,  C  of  fugitive  catching  that  every  man  will 
communicate  with  some  one  of  his  relatives  or 
intimates.  It  is  not  human  nature  to  break  off 
every  tie.  Against  the  possibility  of  this  fugi 
tive  writing  Gard  established  a  close  watch 
over  the  mail  of  each  of  the  fugitive  's  relatives 
and  close  friends.  The  postman  who  delivered 
mail  to  each  was  given  samples  of  Berliner's 
handwriting,  was  instructed  to  report  the 
arrival  of  any  letter  that  might  be  suspected  of 


198     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

coming  from  him,  to  have  tracings  made  of  its 
envelope,  to  note  its  postmark,  before  it  was 
delivered. 

But  a  month  passed  and  no  suspicious  letter 
arrived. 

In  the  meantime  every  possibility  of  getting 
directly  on  the  trail  was  exhausted.  Even  in  a 
great  city  like  New  York  it  is  difficult  for  any 
body  to  take  a  train  without  having  fixed  the 
attention  of  somebody  else.  An  expressman 
must  be  called  to  get  a  truck  to  the  station.  A 
taxicab  may  be  used.  Servants  are  aware  of  a 
departure.  Tickets  must  be  bought.  Conduc 
tors  on  trains  must  take  up  those  tickets. 

It  is  a  tedious  task  to  interview  innumerable 
expressmen  and  ask  each  if  he  had  had  a  sum 
mons  from  a  certain  apartment.  The  taxicab 
records  of  calls  are  equally  confusing,  but  each 
may  be  traced  to  a  driver  and  that  individual 
may  be  questioned.  Every  ticket  seller  in  a  city 
may  be  seen  in  a  day  or  two,  the  photograph  of 
the  man  wanted  may  be  shown  and  a  recollection 
of  him  developed.  If  the  fugitive  is  of  striking 
appearance,  as  was  Berliner,  the  chances  of  his 
being  remembered  are  increased.  If  the  trail  is 
once  crossed  the  going  is  easier. 


THE  ELUSIVE  FUGITIVE     199 

Yet  all  these  and  many  other  devices  failed  in 
this  case,  and  chance  first  pointed  the  way.  The 
goddess  of  coincidence  made  her  appearance  in 
a  modest  motion  picture  theater  where  Gard 
and  a  friend  were  killing  a  bit  of  time.  Among 
the  reels  shown  was  one  which  portrayed  a  visit 
of  the  President  to  New  York.  It  began  with 
the  arrival  at  the  station,  among  throngs  of  peo 
ple. 

"By  the  Lord  Harry!"  suddenly  exclaimed 
the  special  agent.  "Would  you  pipe  that  gray- 
haired  gent  in  the  foreground.  I  have  been 
looking  for  him  for  a  month. ' ' 

It  was  Berliner.  He  had  chosen  the  moment 
when  the  station  was  most  crowded  to  make  his 
getaway.  Oblivious  to  the  presence  of  the 
motion  picture  operator,  he  had  stopped  for  a 
moment  to  say  good-by  to  another  man,  his 
brother,  as  Gard  thought.  The  two  had  spoken 
a  few  words  and  parted. 

"I  wonder,"  soliloquized  Gard,  "what  those 
two  men  said  to  each  other. ' ' 

Then  he  thought  of  Jane  Gates,  the  Lily  Maid, 
the  deaf  copyist  at  headquarters,  the  cameo- 
faced  girl,  best  loved  of  the  special  agents. 

*  *  The  Lily  Maid  might  read  the  lips  of  those 


200     UNCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

unconscious  motion  picture  actors,"  he  thought. 
4 '  They  are  right  out  in  front. ' ' 

So  it  happened  that  the  deaf  typist  got  a  half- 
holiday  and  she  and  Gard  spent  it  at  the  picture 
show,  where  her  lack  of  the  sense  of  hearing  in 
no  way  detracted  from  her  enjoyment. 

The  scene  at  the  station  came  on.  Gard 
pointed  out  the  two  men  in  the  foreground,  who, 
fortunately,  were  facing  the  machine.  The  deaf 
girl  picked  their  words  from  their  lips  and 
repeated  them  in  the  hollow  tones  of  those  who 
have  learned  to  talk  without  hearing. 

"Send  Margaret  to  London  in  three  months," 
the  customs  broker  was  saying.  "I  shall  not 
write." 

"But  how  shall  we  know  of  your  where 
abouts?"  the  brother  asked. 

'  *  You  will  not  know.  I  take  no  chances, ' '  was 
the  answer. 

"But  where  are  you  going?" 

"First  to  Montreal,  eventually  to  Europe. 
There  I  will  hide  and  live  in  peace. ' ' 

This  much  of  the  talk  of  the  brothers  was 
definitely  made  out.  A  return  for  three  per 
formances  thoroughly  confirmed  the  conversa 
tion. 


THE  ELUSIVE  FUGITIVE     201 

"You  are  the  best  detective  on  the  force," 
Gard  told  the  deaf  girl  with  his  lips,  thereby 
making  her  very  happy,  for  she  was  full  of  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  service. 

"But  more  remarkable  than  this/'  he  con 
tinued,  watching  for  the  flush  of  pink  which 
such  sallies  always  drew  to  her  cheeks,  "is  that 
the  best  detective  in  the  great  city  should,  at 
the  same  time,  be  its  very  prettiest  girl." 

The  next  day  the  special  agent  was  on  the 
cold  trail  in  Montreal.  The  fact  that  a  fugitive 
must  eat  and  sleep  is  a  great  help  to  a  detec 
tive.  All  the  hotels  in  a  city  may  be  canvassed 
and  are  likely  to  yield  results.  It  was  at  a  little 
family  hostelry  in  the  suburbs  that  a  gray- 
haired  man  of  distinction  had  passed  a  week. 
He  had  been  gone  nine  days.  Yes,  he  had  a 
trunk.  The  porter  knew  that  it  had  gone  to  a 
certain  station.  The  ticket  agent  thought  he 
remembered  selling  the  man  whose  picture  was 
shown  him  a  ticket  to  Chicago.  Dave  White 
was  the  conductor  on  the  train  to  that  point  on 
the  day  in  question  and  remembered  the  gray- 
haired  man. 

In  Chicago  the  trail  grew  warmer.  The  fugi 
tive  had  been  at  the  Auditorium  but  four  days 


202     UNCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

earlier,  but  the  porters  were  unable  to  recall 
any  of  the  details  of  his  going  away.  The  spe 
cial  agent  asked  to  see  the  room  Berliner  had 
occupied.  It  was  taken  by  another  guest,  but 
Gard  was  allowed  to  explain  himself  to  the 
successor  of  the  fugitive  and  was  given  per 
mission  to  search  the  room.  A  close  examina 
tion  of  it  developed  but  one  clue.  Sticking 
inside  a  waste  basket  were  three  fragments  of 
a  letterhead  that  had  been  torn  into  small  pieces. 
One  of  these  fragments  showed  part  of  the  pic 
ture  of  another  hotel.  An  arrow,  drawn  in  ink, 
pointed  to  a  certain  window. 

Gard  took  the  fragments  of  the  picture  of  the 
hotel  to  a  traveler's  guide  and  searched  for  the 
house  that  would  compare  with  it.  Eventually 
he  found  the  duplicate,  and  it  was  a  Chicago  hos 
telry.  He  hurried  to  it.  After  showing  his 
credentials  to  the  house  detective,  information 
was  freely  supplied.  The  room  in  question  was 
occupied  by  a  woman  and  had  been  so  occupied 
for  two  weeks.  She  was  a  handsome  and  styl 
ish  red-haired  woman  of  thirty-five.  She  had 
been  carefully  watched  for  a  reason  that  pres 
ently  developed. 


THE  ELUSIVE  FUGITIVE     203 

"Has  she  received  any  callers!"  asked  the 
special  agent. 

"But  one  person,  a  man,  has  visited  her," 
answered  the  house  detective. 

"What  sort  of  a  man!"  asked  Gard. 

"A  large  man  with  gray  hair,"  said  the  house 
detective.  "He  is  in  her  room  now." 

"Will  you  go  up  with  me  immediately f " 
ejaculated  the  special  agent.  "I  must  not  fail 
to  see  this  man. ' ' 

"Assuredly,"  was  the  response,  and  they 
caught  the  next  elevator. 

The  car  they  took  was  an  express  and  was 
not  to  stop  until  it  reached  the  eleventh  floor. 
The  next  to  it  was  a  local,  stopping  at  all  floors. 
The  express,  going  up  with  the  detectives 
aboard,  slackened  its  speed  at  the  eighth  floor 
while  its  operator  gave  some  message  to  the  boy 
on  the  local  which  had  stopped  there  to  take 
on  a  passenger.  The  cars  were  of  an  open 
work  structure  and  the  passengers  in  one  could 
see  quite  plainly  those  on  the  other  as  they 
passed.  As  the  express  passed  Gard  looked 
through  at  those  riding  on  the  other  car* 
Imagine  his  consternation  when,  not  two  feet 


204     UNCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

from  him,  he  saw  the  man  for  whom  he  had  been 
searching  for  months.  As  he  gazed  through  the 
checked  steel  slats  of  the  car  side  he  was  close 
enough  to  have  put  out  his  hand  and  laid  it 
on  his  man  had  nothing  intervened.  Berliner 
faced  him  and,  as  the  car  paused,  he  and  the 
special  agent  gazed  directly  into  the  eyes  of 
each  other.  This  was  for  but  an  instant  and 
both  cars  were  in  motion  again.  The  detective 
was  being  borne  rapidly  toward  the  top  of  the 
building  and  the  fugitive  less  rapidly  toward 
the  ground. 

4 'There  is  my  man  on  the  other  elevator," 
Gard  whispered  hurriedly  to  the  house  detec 
tive.  "Have  the  boy  reverse  and  run  down 
again. ' ' 

The  message  was  given  to  the  operator,  who 
obeyed  instantly  and  some  excuse  was  made  to 
the  passengers  on  the  car.  The  local  had  been 
stopping  at  each  floor  and  the  express  passed 
it  and  barely  reached  the  ground  floor  first. 
There  the  two  detectives  stepped  out  and  waited 
for  the  coming  of  the  other  car. 

A  moment  later  it  arrived,  much  crowded,  and 
began  to  disgorge  itself.  The  two  officers 
waited  in  instant  readiness  to  capture  the  man 


THE  ELUSIVE  FUGITIVE     205 

whom  they  had  seen  at  the  eighth  floor.  But 
the  car  was  emptied  and  he  was  not  among  the 
passengers. 

"Where  did  the  big  gray-haired  man  get 
off?"  the  boy  was  asked. 

"Third  floor,  sir,"  he  replied. 

"You  bar  the  exits,"  Gard  said  to  the  house 
detective,  "and  I  will  get  back  to  the  third." 

On  that  floor  the  hallman  said  that  the  white- 
haired  gentleman  had  run  down  the  steps  to 
the  second.  Gard  followed,  but  was  able  to  find 
no  one  on  that  floor  who  had  seen  the  fugitive. 
He  ran  hastily  about  looking  for  possible  exits, 
and  then  instituted  a  thorough  search.  He 
investigated  every  possible  avenue  of  escape 
and  hastened  downstairs  to  his  ally  to  help  cut 
off  the  line  of  retreat.  Every  possible  barrier 
was  put  up  and  the  house  was  well  gone  over. 
The  gray-haired  fugitive  had,  however,  eluded 
pursuit. 

Gard  immediately  called  upon  the  Chicago 
police  to  throw  out  a  dragnet  and  a  general 
alarm,  and  this  was  done.  All  railway  stations 
were  watched  with  particular  care.  But  none 
of  these  efforts  were  of  any  avail,  as  Berliner 
was  never  reported  to  have  been  seen  again  in 


206     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

.Chicago.  Nor  was  Gard  able  to  get  so  much 
as  the  glimmer  of  a  trace  of  him  nor  a  sugges 
tion  as  to  where  he  might  have  gone. 

It  was  a  task  of  infinite  patience  that  brought 
Special  Agent  William  H.  Gard  to  London  two 
months  later  on  the  trail  of  a  woman  whom  he 
had  traced  half  around  the  world.  The  Titian- 
haired  guest  of  the  Chicago  hotel,  the  wife  of 
the  fugitive  broker,  here  installed  herself  for  a 
while  and  lived  in  a  manner  that  amounted  to 
absolute  seclusion. 

Then  she  went  to  Paris.  There  she  took 
rooms  in  a  quiet  side  street  and  seemed  to  settle 
down  with  some  idea  of  permanence.  There 
was  nothing  in  her  mode  of  life  that  would  in 
dicate  that  she  lived  differently  from  any 
other  woman  who  was  alone  in  the  world  and 
sought  quiet.  She  went  out  for  a  long  walk 
every  afternoon,  purchased  the  necessities  of 
her  establishment,  or  books,  of  which  she  seemed 
to  read  great  numbers. 

Special  Agent  Gard  established  a  close  watch 
over  the  house  in  which  she  lived.  This  was 
easy  because  there  was  but  a  front  entrance  and 
apartments  opposite  looked  out  upon  the  street. 
He  determined  that  nobody  should  enter  this 


THE  ELUSIVE  FUGITIVE     207 

house  without  being  observed.  He  asked  the 
Paris  police  to  provide  him  with  two  reliable 
men  who  could  watch  with  him  in  shifts  from 
the  quarters  he  rented  across  the  street. 

A  vigil  of  two  weeks  revealed  absolutely  noth 
ing.  With  the  exception  of  the  servant  who 
came  at  noon  each  day  and  remained  not  more 
than  four  hours,  no  living  creature  entered  the 
house.  In  all  that  two  weeks  the  postman  left 
no  mail.  Billy  Gard  seemed  to  be  up  against  a 
blank  wall.  He  held,  however,  that  if  a  man 
kept  awake  on  the  most  hopeless  job  for  a  suffi 
cient  length  of  time  some  clue  was  sure  to 
develop  or  some  idea  present  itself  that  would 
lead  toward  results. 

Gard  investigated  the  maid  who  worked  the 
daily  short  shift  in  the  quarters  of  the  red- 
haired  woman  from  America.  He  found  her  a 
placid  and  stupid  creature  who  knew  nothing 
nor  had  intelligence  sufficient  for  his  purpose. 
Incidentally  he  found  that  she  had  secured  her 
place  through  an  employment  agency  located  at 
a  considerable  distance.  He  immediately  made 
use  of  this  information. 

The  special  agent,  through  the  Paris  police 
force,  secured  the  cooperation  of  the  employ- 


208     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

ment  bureau.  A  position  that  paid  much  better 
was  offered  to  the  servant  of  Mrs.  Berliner. 
It  was,  quite  naturally,  accepted.  That  lady, 
finding  herself  without  a  servant,  returned  to 
the  agency  that  had  formerly  provided  her  with 
one  who  was  entirely  satisfactory.  She  asked 
for  a  second  maid. 

The  employment  bureau  immediately  sup 
plied  her  demand.  The  woman  who  was  sent 
was,  in  secret,  more  than  she  seemed  to  be.  She 
was  connected  with  the  Paris  police  department 
and  was  a  detective  of  some  cleverness.  Almost 
immediately  she  took  up  her  new  activities. 

Three  days  later  she  reported  to  Agent  Gard 
from  America.  She  had  found  in  her  red- 
haired  mistress  a  woman  who  led  a  quiet  life 
that  seemed  in  no  way  irregular,  who  followed 
a  normal  routine  of  housekeeping,  walking, 
shopping.  She  seemed  to  have  no  acquaintan 
ces.  But  one  thing  irregular  appeared  in  the 
whole  establishment.  There  was  one  room  in 
the  rear  of  the  suite  which  remained  locked. 
The  mistress  had  stated  that  it  was  a  storage 
room.  This  seemed  somewhat  strange,  as  it 
must  look  out  upon  the  interior  court  and  there 
fore  be  the  most  attractive  room  of  them  all. 


THE  ELUSIVE  FUGITIVE    209 

It  seemed  peculiar  that  such  a  room  should  be 
used  for  storage  and,  even  so,  that  it  should  be 
locked  up. 

Gard  put  together  the  two  facts — the  locked 
room  and  the  short  hours  of  the  servant — and 
drew  a  conclusion.  It  was  as  the  result  of  this 
conclusion  that  he  asked  the  woman  detective 
to  install  a  dictagraph  beneath  the  table  in  the 
sunny  little  dining  room  just  off  the  apartment 
of  the  locked  door.  This  was  easy  of  accom 
plishment  during  the  hour  of  the  afternoon 
stroll  of  the  mistress  of  the  house.  The  wires 
of  the  dictagraph  were  run  across  the  street  and 
into  the  watch-tower  rooms  of  the  special  agent. 

When  the  dinner  hour  approached  that  even 
ing  Billy  Gard  sat  patiently  with  the  headpiece 
of  the  dictagraph  securely  in  place.  The  first 
sound  that  he  caught  from  across  the  street 
was  that  of  feet,  supposedly  those  of  the  woman 
of  the  Titian  hair,  passing  back  and  forth  about 
the  room,  then  an  occasional  snatch  of  a  song 
while  she  worked.  He  gathered  that  she  was 
arranging  for  the  evening  meal,  the  servant 
having  gone  home  hours  before. 

Ten  minutes  passed  and  then  there  came  over 
the  wire  a  sound  that  might  have  been  a  bit 


210     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

surprising  to  the  observer  of  this  ultra  quiet 
household,  the  watcher  at  the  entrance  through 
which  none  had  passed  unseen  since  the  day 
it  was  rented,  had  not  the  listener  already 
developed  a  theory. 

""Well,  Margaret,"  said  a  full-throated  man's 
voice,  as  transmitted  by  the  dictagraph,  ''this 
is  not  so  bad.  I  never  dreamed  that  you  had 
the  housewifely  instincts  that  would  make  it 
possible  for  you  to  arrange  with  your  own  hands 
the  dainty  dinners  we  are  having.  I  am  begin 
ning  to  think  that  the  man  is  lucky  who  cannot 
afford  servants." 

"And  don't  you  know,"  said  a  woman's 
voice,  "I  never  enjoyed  anything  more  in  my 
life.  For  almost  the  only  time  I  can  remember 
I  have  a  definite  occupation.  I  have  to  pro 
vide  our  creature  comforts.  I  haven't  been  so 
happy  in  years.  I  really  don't  care  how  long 
they  keep  us  cooped  up." 

"I  will  confess,"  said  the  man,  "that  the  nov 
elty  has  worn  off  of  the  view  into  the  courtyard. 
But  it  might  be  worse.  For  a  while  they  had 
me  thinking  quite  regularly  of  striped  suits  and 
the  lockstep  which  are  part  of  a  life  even  more 


THE  ELUSIVE  FUGITIVE    211 

confining  than  this.  And  here  I  have  you.  I 
am  quite  content  to  wait  for  the  atmosphere  to 
clear. " 

"But  I  am  very  sure  we  are  still  being 
watched,"  said  the  woman.  "I  always  feel  that 
I  am  being  followed  when  I  go  out." 

* '  Very  likely, ' '  said  the  man.  ' '  But  no  detec 
tive  will  pursue  fruitless  quests  indefinitely. 
Even  though  they  know  you  are  here,  they  will 
ultimately  lose  interest  in  a  surveillance  that 
yields  nothing.  We  can  afford  to  wait.  The 
time  will  come  when  we  can  steal  away  in 
safety." 

"When  it  is  all  over,"  she  responded,  "I  do 
wish  that  we  could  find  a  way  to  let  those  detec 
tives  know  that  you  were  here  under  their  very 
noses  all  the  time." 

Billy  Gard,  it  may  here  be  set  down,  was 
most  anxious  to  learn  how  this  had  been  possi 
ble.  He  had  followed  Margaret  Berliner  to  the 
house  when  she  had  first  come  to  see  it.  He  had 
been  notified  immediately  when  she  had  rented 
it.  From  that  moment  he  had  watched  every 
detail  of  her  taking  possession;  had,  with  the  aid 
of  his  men,  seen  everything  that  had  gone  into 


212     UNCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

the  house.  Yet  Berliner  had  installed  himself 
without  his  knowledge  and  had  been  living  there 
all  the  time. 

"It  would  have  been  impossible  without 
Archie,"  Berliner  was  saying.  "A  man  in  a 
position  like  mine  needs,  upon  occasion,  some 
one  he  can  trust  to  do  little  things  for  him. 
We  may  quarrel  with  blood  relatives  all  our 
lives,  but  they  have  the  advantage  of  being  safe 
to  trust  in  time  of  trouble.  It  is  a  very  small 
thing  to  send  a  man  to  a  rent  agent  for  a  key 
to  inspect  lodgings  and  to  send  him  back  with 
the  key  after  they  are  inspected.  But  had  I 
not  been  able  to  trust  Archie  absolutely  I  would 
not  have  been  able  to  get  in  here  a  day  ahead  of 
you  and  this  snug  little  arrangement  would  not 
have  been  possible." 

It  was  because  of  what  he  here  overheard  that 
Special  Agent  Gard,  assisted  by  Coleman  of  the 
Paris  office  and  the  police  of  that  city,  consid 
erately  waited  until  Mrs.  Berliner  went  shop 
ping  the  following  day  and  were  admitted  by  the 
woman  detective,  who  was  at  the  time  washing 
the  accumulated  dishes  of  the  household.  They 
so  surrounded  the  locked  door  as  to  make  escape 
impossible  and  then  announced  their  presence. 


THE  ELUSIVE  FUGITIVE     213 

Gard  told  Berliner,  through  the  locked  door,  of 
the  situation  that  existed  on  the  outside.  He 
suggested  that  the  easiest  way  was  to  unbolt 
the  entrance,  thereby  saving  the  necessity  of 
breaking  it  down.  Whereupon  the  customs  bro 
ker  walked  out  and  surrendered,  and  a  very 
tedious  fugitive  case  was  brought  to  a  success 
ful  conclusion. 


XI 

THE   BANK   BOOKKEEPBB 

ATWELVE-DOLLAK-A-WEEK  book 
keeper  in  a  prim  New  England  town, 
without  access  to  the  funds  of  the  bank 
for  which  he  worked,  stole  nearly  a  half  million 
dollars  and  so  juggled  the  books  as  to  hide  the 
shortage  from  the  directors  and  from  the 
national  bank  examiner  for  a  period  of  two 
years. 

The  "faro  gang,"  a  band  of  master  crooks, 
as  well  organized  as  though  for  the  development 
of  a  mining  venture,  financed  in  advance  for 
many  thousands  of  dollars,  took  the  money  from 
the  bookkeeper  as  regularly  as  he  took  it  from 
the  bank — took  it  all,  but  never  aroused  his  sus 
picion. 

The  detectives  of  the  bureau  of  investigation, 
Department  of  Justice,  unraveled  the  whole  tan 
gled  skein  and  revealed  the  ramifications  of  one 

214 


THE  BAXK  BOOKKEEPER     215 

of  the  cornpletest  schemes  for  the  illicit  acqui 
sition  of  other  people's  money  that  the  history 
of  the  crime  of  the  nation  has  ever  developed. 

The  first  incident  that  led  to  the  discovery  of 
this  monster  plot  to  defraud  took  place  when 
two  most  staid  and  dignified  of  the  solid  citizens 
of  Bainbridge,  Mass.,  happened  to  meet  outside 
the  First  National  bank  of  that  serene  suburb 
of  Boston  one  sunshiny  afternoon.  Their  con 
versation  led  to  an  argument  as  to  whether  there 
was  $186,000  or  $187,000  in  the  endowment  of 
an  orphanage,  of  which  they  were  directors. 
To  settle  this  argument  they  decided  to  have  a 
look  at  the  books  which  contained  the  record  of 
deposits  and  withdrawals. 

So  these  dignified  guardians  of  this  endow 
ment  fund  approached  the  cashier's  window  in 
the  First  National  bank  and  asked  for  the  bal 
ance  in  the  given  account.  The  official  turned 
automatically  to  the  ledger  containing  the  inac 
tive  accounts  of  the  bank,  glanced  at  the  bal 
ance  and  automatically  reported  the  figures 
there  revealed. 

"Four  thousand  five  hundred  dollars,"  he 
said. 

So  was  obtained  the  first  revealing  flash  into 


216     UXCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

the  affairs  of  this  institution  which  had  stood 
as  the  conservative  financial  bulwark  of  the  com 
munity  for  a  hundred  years.  Yet  a  week  later, 
when  the  principal  pass  books  had  been  called 
in,  and  the  experts  had  completed  their  exami 
nation,  the  bank  was  shown  to  be  but  a  financial 
shell.  Each  of  those  large  inactive  accounts 
that  lent  the  institution  its  strength  was  found 
to  have  melted  away.  A  bank  of  a  capital  of 
but  $100,000,  it  was  soon  shown  that  it  had  been 
looted  for  more  than  $400,000  of  the  depositors ' 
money. 

As  soon  as  the  shortage  was  evident  a  report 
was  made  to  the  Department  of  Justice,  in 
Washington,  which  has  charge  of  the  prosecu 
tion  of  violators  of  the  national  banking  laws. 
Expert  accountants  and  Special  Agent  Billy 
Gard  of  the  Bureau  of  Investigation  of  that 
department  were  immediately  hurried  to  the 
scene.  When  they  arrived  they  found  that  one 
event  had  just  transpired  which  came  near 
establishing  the  facts  as  to  the  immediate 
responsibility  of  the  shortage.  The  bookkeeper 
of  the  bank  had  disappeared. 

The  bank  was  an  institution  which  employed 
but  three  men;  a  cashier,  an  assistant  cashier, 


THE  BANK  BOOKKEEPER     217 

and  a  bookkeeper.  The  disappearance  of  the 
bookkeeper,  Robert  Tollman,  fixed  attention  on 
him,  and  it  was  ultimately  demonstrated  that 
he  was  the  only  individual  inside  the  bank  who 
had  anything  to  do  with  its  misfortunes. 

Special  Agent  Gard,  who  handled  the  outside 
work  of  the  investigation,  found  Tollman  to  be 
a  youngster  of  twenty-three,  a  mild-eyed,  likable 
chap,  who  made  friends  easily.  He  was  a  mem 
ber  of  one  of  those  old  New  England  puritani 
cal  families  that  have  become  institutions  in 
the  community  in  which  they  reside.  Back  of 
him  were  a  dozen  generations  of  repression,  of 
straight-edged  righteousness.  At  the  age  of 
eighteen  he  had  entered  the  bank,  and  at  twenty- 
three  was  receiving  a  salary  of  but  $12  a  week. 
There  had  been  no  chance  for  advancement. 
At  twenty-one  he  had  come  into  $20,000  as  an 
inheritance  from  an  aunt  and  this  had  been  the 
one  event  of  his  life,  up  to  that  time. 

The  government's  expert  accountant  immedi 
ately  established  the  manner  in  which  the  funds 
of  the  bank  had  been  taken.  As  bookkeeper, 
Tollman  did  not  have  access  to  the  cash  or  secu 
rities,  and  was  therefore  not  considered  as  being 
in  a  position  of  trust.  He  was  not  even  bonded. 


218     UNCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

But  beneath  his  eye  there  constantly  passed 
those  large  accounts  of  the  bank  which  repre 
sented  its  wealth. 

It  was  about  six  months  after  Tollman  came 
of  age  that  irregular  charges  began  to  appear 
against  the  inactive  accounts.  At  first  they 
were  modest  and  infrequent.  Steadily  they 
strengthened  and  grew  in  size.  Eventually  it 
"was  shown  that  charges  averaging  $5,000  a  day 
were  being  regularly  placed  against  these 
accounts.  There  were  weeks  during  which  the 
bookkeeper  had  succeeded  in  abstracting  such 
amounts  every  day. 

The  bank  accountants  were  soon  able  to  dem 
onstrate  the  method  of  these  abstractions.  The 
bookkeeper  would  give  a  check  against  his  own 
account  to  some  individual  in  Boston  and  that 
individual  would  deposit  it  for  collection.  It 
would  be  sent  through  the  clearing  house  and 
eventually  reach  the  bank  in  Bainbridge.  The 
bookkeeper  was  always  early  at  the  bank  when 
any  such  checks  were  expected  from  the  clear 
ing  house.  He  opened  the  letters  transmitting 
them,  turning  the  statement  of  the  total  amount 
represented  over  to  the  cashier,  that  a  check 
might  be  sent  by  him  to  the  clearing  house.  It 


THE  BAXK  BOOKKEEPER     219 

was  the  province  of  the  bookkeeper  to  enter  tlie 
individual  checks  against  the  accounts  repre 
sented.  When  he  reached  his  own  personal 
check,  he  charged  it  to  some  one  of  the  inactive 
accounts  instead  of  his  own  and  destroyed  it. 
So  had  he  taken  $400,000. 

But  the  immediate  task  in  hand  fell  to  Billy 
Gard.  It  was  the  apprehension  of  the  fugitive 
and  the  recovery,  if  possible,  of  all  or  part  of 
the  money  taken.  It  was  in  the  course  of  the 
performance  of  this  duty  that  the  ramifications 
of  this  case  which  give  it  a  place  among  the 
most  unique  and  complete  crimes  of  the  age 
were  developed. 

While  accountants  were  revealing  methods 
used  inside  the  bank  in  getting  hold  of  the 
money,  Gard  was  busy  outside.  Tollman,  hav 
ing  disappeared,  was  to  be  traced.  The  first 
step  was  to  establish  his  habits,  to  find  his  asso 
ciates.  To  the  experienced  special  agent  the 
groundwork  of  a  case  of  this  sort  unfolds  almost 
of  itself.  There  were  the  people  who  knew  him 
best  in  Bainbridge,  for  instance.  They  told 
Gard  that  the  youngster  had  broken  away,  of 
late,  from  the  friends  of  his  youth.  He  was 
believed  to  have  gone  to  Boston  for  his  pleas- 


220     UNCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

ures.  He  had  a  big  red  automobile  which,  it 
was  supposed,  he  had  bought  with  the  money 
of  his  inheritance  and  in  which  he  drove  away 
practically  every  night.  Through  the  whole  of 
the  last  year  of  his  peculations,  Tollman,  the 
twelve-dollar-a-week  clerk,  drove  regularly  to 
Ms  work  at  the  bank  in  this  car. 

In  Boston  Gard  picked  up  the  clues.  Toll 
man  was  well  known  at  certain  hotels  and  cafes. 
At  one  hotel  which  was  rendezvous  for  sport 
ing  people  he  regularly  called  upon  a  very  dash 
ing  young  woman  who  was  registered  as  Laura 
Gatewood.  It  was  at  this  same  hotel  that  he 
became  acquainted  with  an  accomplished  indi 
vidual  known  as  John  E.  Mansfield,  who  was 
well  known  about  McDougal's  Tap,  in  Colum 
bia  Avenue,  and  whose  livelihood  was  secured 
through  alleged  games  of  chance.  Miss  Gate- 
wood  also  introduced  Tollman  to  a  Mrs.  Sid- 
dons,  an  especial  friend  of  Mansfield,  who  main 
tained  a  cozy  little  apartment  in  a  respectable 
part  of  Boston,  and  who  had,  in  a  dress  suit 
case,  a  portable  faro  outfit  which  could  be  set 
up  in  her  rooms  upon  occasion.  There  was  also 
Edward  T.  Walls,  a  large  and  dominant  man, 
who  had,  of  late,  found  poker  playing  on  trans- 


THE  BANK  BOOKKEEPER     221 

atlantic  liners  a  rather  precarious  calling.  But, 
finally,  Miss  Gatewood  arranged  meetings 
between  Tollman  and  "Big  Bill"  Kelliner,  who 
lived  in  Winthrop,  not  far  away,  was  in  the 
wholesale  liquor  business,  in  politics,  and,  as 
afterward  developed,  was  a  dominating  spirit 
in  the  "faro  gang." 

With  the  development  of  the  friendship  with 
Kelliner  began  the  trips  to  New  York.  These 
two  would  meet  two  or  three  times  a  week  at 
the  Back  Bay  station  and  together  take  the 
train  for  New  York.  So  frequent  were  these 
trips  that  the  members  of  the  train  crews  came 
to  be  well  acquainted  with  the  men,  and  to  know 
something  of  their  movements.  They  gave 
clues  to  the  hotels  in  New  York  at  which  these 
travelers  stayed,  and  this  led  to  their  identifi 
cation  by  hotel  clerks  and  other  facts  as  to  their 
associates.  Eventually  all  this  led  to  a  certain 
house  in  West  Twenty-eighth  Street  and  a  con 
sultation  with  the  New  York  police  as  to  its 
character. 

It  developed  that  in  this  house  there  was 
always  running,  on  evenings  when  Kelliner  and 
Tollman  came  to  New  York,  a  faro  game.  Here 
Kelliner  gambled  and  at  first  won  and  induced 


222     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

Tollman  to  try  his  luck.  The  youngster  was 
allowed  to  win  prodigiously.  Again  he  would 
lose,  but  not  enough  to  frighten  him  away.  So 
was  the  craze  for  gambling  developed  in  the 
bookkeeper.  But  eventually  he  lost  what  was 
left  of  his  inheritance. 

Up  to  this  time  he  was  honest.  But  at  the 
suggestion  of  Kelliner  he  stole  from  the  bank 
to  make  good  his  losses.  He  lost  again,  and 
was  in  the  mill.  There  was  no  chance  of  escape 
but  through  stealing  more  of  the  bank's  funds 
and  gambling  in  the  hope  of  eventually  win 
ning  out.  The  bookkeeper  had  entirely  lost  his 
head.  He  became  consumed  with  the  reckless 
ness  of  desperation. 

In  the  meantime  the  Gatewood  woman  had 
moved  to  New  York.  Also  Tollman  had  become 
deeply  enamored  with  her.  So  fond  was  he  of 
her  company,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  that  he  would 
often  turn  over  to  Kelliner  and  Mansfield  and 
other  of  their  friends  the  money  with  which  to 
gamble,  while  he  visited  with  Miss  Gatewood. 
The  members  of  the  gang  would  go  to  some 
gilded  restaurant  and  dine  sumptuously  and 
return  to  Tollman  and  report  that  luck  had  been 
against  them,  and  that  they  had  lost  all  their 


THE  BANK  BOOKKEEPER    223 

money.  On  such  occasions  the  profits  of  the 
evening  were  almost  clear  to  the  gang.  On 
such  occasions,  so  the  members  of  the  train 
crew  back  to  Boston  reported,  "Big  Bill"  Kel- 
liner  would  sob  out  his  apparent  grief,  because 
of  his  losses,  on  the  shoulder  of  Tollman.  The 
latter  was  thus  placed  in  the  role  of  comforter. 
Kelliner  would  swear  never  to  gamble  again  and 
make  his  protestations  so  earnestly  that  Toll 
man  would  become  the  aggressor  and  urge  his 
associate  on  and  paint  pictures  of  luck  ahead. 
So  adroitly  did  Kelliner  play  this  game  that 
Tollman  had  been  heard  to  threaten  to  break 
with  him  because  he  was  a  piker. 

For  two  years  this  arrangement  continued. 
Kelliner,  Mansfield,  Walls,  the  Gatewood 
woman,  and  other  accomplices,  maintained 
themselves  as  decoys  that  induced  the  young 
bookkeeper  to  draw  ever  more  checks  against 
his  personal  account  and  always  extract  these 
and  charge  them  where  they  were  least  likely 
to  be  missed.  Despite  his  long  carouses  at  night 
Tollman  never  failed  to  be  at  the  bank  in  time 
to  open  the  mail  and  extract  the  checks  that 
would  have  betrayed  him.  Despite  the  loss  of 
sleep  he  was  never  so  dull  that  he  neglected 


224     UXCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

any  detail  of  his  bookkeeping  that  would  have 
caused  his  accounts  to  fail  to  balance  or  to  show 
any  irregularities  that  would  have  caused  the 
bank  examiner  to  grow  suspicious.  Unsuspect 
ingly  the  stern  old  bank  of  Bainbridge  stood 
with  unruffled  front  until  it  became  but  a  finan 
cial  skeleton,  its  last  spark  of  vitality  wasted 
away. 

But  this  young  bookkeeper  of  the  gambling 
mania!  What  became  of  him?  Those  other 
aiders  and  abetters  to  his  crime !  What  action 
was  taken  in  their  case? 

Special  Agent  Billy  Gard  eventually  had  in 
hand  a  complete  understanding  of  the  individu 
als  and  the  methods  that  were  associated  with 
this  case.  He  had  reached  the  necessity  of  mak 
ing  arrests. 

Kelliner  was  taken  into  custody.  He  indig 
nantly  protested  that  he  was  innocent  of  any 
criminal  wrongdoing.  Mansfield,  Walls  and 
Tollman  had  disappeared.  The  capture  of  the 
latter  was  of  first  importance. 

The  special  agent  turned  first  to  that  primary 
command  of  the  old-school  detective  when  a 
crime  is  committed:  "Find  the  woman."  The 
results  obtained  indicate  that  there  may  be 


THE  BANK  BOOKKEEPER     225 

much  in  the  theory.  In  the  case  of  Tollman 
the  connection  with  the  Gatewood  woman  was 
soon  established.  She  was  not  about  her  old 
haunts  in  New  York.  No  trails  were  immedi 
ately  found.  It  was  developed  that  she  had  ori 
ginally  lived  in  Kansas  City.  When  any  indi 
vidual  has  got  into  trouble  there  is  always  a 
strong  probability  that  he  will  return  to  his  old 
home,  another  detective  theory  to  which  Billy 
Gard  subscribed.  It  is  particularly  true  with 
reference  to  such  serious  crimes  as  murder,  but 
it  is  to  a  material  extent  true  in  all  cases  that 
necessitate  flight. 

Upon  this  theory  Gard  went  to  Kansas  City 
to  look  for  the  woman  in  the  Tollman  case.  It 
required  some  weeks  to  find  her.  When  she 
was  located  it  was  found  that  Tollman  was  not 
with  her.  He  had  been  there  until  the  night 
before.  They  had  quarreled  and  he  had  gone 
away.  The  cause  of  their  quarrel  was  the  fact 
that  Tollman  had  no  money.  She  had  cast  him 
off  as  a  dead  husk.  She  did  not  know  his 
whereabouts. 

In  practically  every  case  of  otherwise  well 
executed  crime  there  develops  some  element  of 
unexpected  folly — the  criminal  does  some  one 


226     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

thing  that  seems,  from  what  would  be  supposed 
to  be  his  standpoint,  inexcusably  stupid.  Gard 
was  therefore  not  surprised  when  it  developed 
that  Tollman  had  not  so  much  as  a  thousand 
dollars  out  of  all  he  had  taken  from  the  bank. 
He  had  made  no  provision  for  the  time  which 
he  must  have  known  would  inevitably  come 
when  he  should  be  detected.  This,  however, 
was  not  the  crowning  folly  from  a  criminal 
standpoint.  Despite  the  dash  and  cunning  and 
the  determination  he  had  evinced  in  his  loot 
ings,  he  lost  his  nerve  when  his  woman  threw 
him  out.  He  purchased,  with  the  proceeds  of 
pawned  jewelry,  a  ticket  to  Bainbridge,  Mass., 
went  there,  and  gave  himself  up  to  the  police. 
His  nerve  was  broken. 

The  theoiy  of  "find  the  woman "  was  applied 
in  the  case  of  the  third  of  the  offenders,  John 
E.  Mansfield,  the  Boston  gambler.  The  apart 
ment  of  Mrs.  Siddons  where  the  faro  game  was, 
upon  occasion,  set  up,  and  the  woman  herself, 
who  was  suspected  of  being  particularly  inti 
mate  with  Mansfield,  were  watched.  The 
watch  was  not  effective,  however,  for  the 
woman  disappeared  with  no  one  seeing  her. 

The  janitor  at  the  apartment  house  reported 


THE  BAXK  BOOKKEEPER     227 

in  going  she  had  taken  a  particularly  heavy 
tjrnnk.  Special  Agent  Stephens  undertook  to 
follow  that  trunk.  He  canvassed  half  the  ex 
pressmen  of  Boston  before  he  found  the  man 
who  had  taken  the  trunk  away.  This  man 
stated  that  he  had  taken  it  to  the  Back  Bay 
station  at  a  certain  time,  and  that  it  had  been 
weighed  and  found  to  be  in  excess  of  the  bag 
gage  a  passenger  might  carry  free  of  charge. 
This  singled  it  out  from  the  mass  of  trunks. 
The  expressman  remembered  that  it  weighed 
225  pounds,  and  that  the  baggageman  had 
marked  it  for  60  cents  excess.  According  to 
the  rate  book  this  would  have  been  the  excess 
charge  for  that  weight  to  New  York.  The 
trunk  was  thus  located  with  sufficient  definite- 
ness  that  its  number  was  procured. 

In  New  York  it  was  found  that  the  excess 
trunk  had  been  sent  on  to  North  Philadelphia 
with  the  charge  C.  0.  D.  Here  the  record 
showed  that  the  trunk  had  been  called  for  by  a 
Mrs.  Price,  living  at  an  address  on  Broad 
Street,  and  the  agent  remembered  that  she  had 
been  accompanied  by  a  man.  At  this  address 
a  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Price  were  found  to  be  living. 
Special  Agent  Stephens  watched  the  Broad 


223     UXCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

Street  house  until  Price  came  out.  lie  was 
none  other  than  Mansfield.  He  was  placed 
under  arrest. 

With  confidence  in  the  old  detective  theory 
of  the  woman,  the  special  agents  applied  it 
again  in  the  case  of  Walls,  the  one-time  gam 
bler  on  transatlantic  liners.  This  was  not 
done,  however,  until  several  suspected  individ 
uals  in  different  cities  had  been  shown  not  to 
be  the  man  wanted,  and  many  other  schemes 
for  the  apprehension  of  the  gambler  had  failed. 
For  Walls  was  married  to  a  very  attractive  and 
respectable  woman,  who  supported  herself  by 
keeping  a  boarding  house  after  his  flight.  It 
could  not  be  discovered  that  she  was  in  com 
munication  with  her  husband.  Finally,  there 
was  developed  another  woman  with  whom  Walls 
was  known  to  have  been  friendly,  and  who  had 
a  part  in  the  activities  of  the  faro  gang.  This 
woman's  correspondence  was  watched,  and  it 
was  soon  discovered  that  she  was  sending  letters 
to  and  receiving  letters  from  a  man  in  Detroit, 
Michigan.  Tracings  of  the  man's  handwriting 
were  made  as  the  letters  came  through  the  post 
office,  and  when  compared  with  that  of  Walls, 
the  resemblance  was  convincing. 


THE  BANK  BOOKKEEPER     229 

The  writer  of  these  letters  gave  his  address 
as  a  lock  box.  A  special  agent  went  to  Detroit, 
but  the  box  had  been  given  up.  Two  months 
later  more  letters  came  to  the  same  woman 
from  Grand  Junction,  Colorado,  and  also  from 
a  lock  box.  The  postmaster  was  able  to  de 
scribe  the  man  holding  the  box  and  the  descrip 
tion  suited  Walls.  But  he  moved  again  before 
a  detective  got  there  to  identify  and  arrest  him. 
There  was  a  chase  of  six  months  on  such  clues, 
always  through  the  same  woman,  but  Walls  was 
still  at  large. 

Eventually  there  appeared  among  death 
notices  in  New  York  the  name  of  Edward  T. 
Walls.  Subsequently  Mrs.  Walls  went  from 
her  boarding  house  in  Boston  and  took  charge 
of  the  body.  Suspecting  that  this  might  be  a 
trick  to  throw  them  off  their  guard,  the  special 
agents  took  every  precaution  to  identify  the 
body.  Eventually  they  were  convinced  that  the 
man  they  had  pursued  so  diligently  was  dead. 
The  case  was  closed. 

The  three  principals  in  this  case,  Tollman, 
Kelliner  and  Mansfield,  were  given  15,  18  and 
10  years  respectively.  After  their  conviction 
both  Tollman  and  Kelliner  talked  freely  to  Billy 


230     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

Gard  of  the  whole  case  and  threw  some  inter 
esting  sidelights  upon  it.  Kelliner  told  particu 
larly  of  the  inception  of  the  plans  of  the  faro 
gang.  He  said  it  came  into  being  at  Atlantic 
City  where  he  and  Mansfield  and  Walls  hap 
pened  to  be  spending  a  week-end.  Kelliner  at 
that  time  already  had  a  line  on  Tollman,  and 
other  possible  victims  were  deemed  ready  for 
the  plucking. 

With  these  prospective  victims  in  mind  the 
faro  gang  was  organized.  Money  had  to  be 
raised  for  the  fitting  up  of  the  establishment  in 
Twenty-eighth  Street,  which  was  only  used 
when  victims  were  in  tow.  This  alone  cost 
$2,000.  Then  there  was  the  necessary  expense 
money  of  the  members  of  the  gang  while  they 
were  developing  their  victims.  There  must  be 
cash  in  the  bank  to  be  won  when  those  victims 
made  their  first  appearance.  Altogether  it  was 
a  business  that  had  to  be  capitalized  for  some 
thing  like  $20,000  before  it  could  begin  opera 
tions.  But,  as  it  afterwards  turned  out,  it  was 
a  profitable  investment  if  viewed  from  the 
standpoint  of  Tollman  alone;  and  there  were 
other  victims. 


PUTTING  UP   THE   MASTER  BLUFJ1 

DID  you  ever  go  among  strangers  and 
pretend  to  be  a  more  important  per 
sonage  than  you  really  are?  Yes? 
So  have  I.  There  are  many  of  us  who  habitu 
ally  take  a  taxicab  when  we  go  into  a  strange 
city  on  a  modest  piece  of  business.  Yet  at 
home  we  would  walk  six  blocks  to  save  a  nickel 
in  car  fare.  I  would  not  acknowledge  to  the 
hotel  clerk,  nor  would  you,  that  an  inside  room, 
price  one  dollar,  is  what,  in  my  heart,  I  would 
like  to  ask  for  when  I  say  that  three-fifty  will 
be  about  right.  And  we  tip  the  waiter,  you  and 
I,  although  we  know  that  he  makes  twice  the 
money  we  do,  and  we  let  the  haberdasher's  clerk 
sell  us  a  shirt  for  three  dollars  when  we  should 
pay  one,  and  the  barber  bulldozes  us  into  taking- 
a  shampoo  when  there  is  a  perfectly  good  bar 
of  soap  at  home  and  not  working. 

231 


232     UNCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

For,  to  ourselves,  upon  occasion,  we  like  to  be 
the  dream  people,  to  see  ourselves  as  the  great 
and  dominant  of  the  land,  to  step  out  of  the 
everyday  commonplace  of  our  existence.  We 
pay  the  price  of  our  temporary  emancipation. 
We  may  feel  a  bit  foolish  when  the  bellboy  is 
gone  and  we  are  alone  with  the  pitcher  of  ice 
water,  but  in  our  hearts  it  is  worth  the  money. 

Admitting  this  tendency  to  dissemble,  how 
large  a  front  of  false  pretense  could  you  put 
up,  how  important  a  personage  do  you  think 
you  could  make  of  yourself,  if  you  should  find 
all  the  gates  open  and  were  invited  to  do  your 
durndest?  And  if  you  should,  in  a  moment  of 
abandon,  summon  courage  to  introduce  your 
self  as  the  King  of  Spain  or  Anthony  Corn- 
stock  or  Lillian  Russell,  and  if  you  did  this  in 
a  gathering  that  you  knew  to  be  made  up  of 
selected  master  minds,  how  well  do  you  think 
you  would  be  able  to  sustain  the  part? 

This  is  the  story  of  a  modest  employee  of 
the  Government,  drawing  $2,500  a  year,  who 
walked  into  a  convention  of  millionaire  manu 
facturers  and  with  no  basis  in  fact  for  his  claim, 
virtually  spoke  to  these  dominant  and  success 
ful  princes  of  industry  as  follows : 


THE  MASTER  BLUFF         233 

"Gentlemen,  you  are  mere  children  playing 
at  the  factory  business.  I  am  the  master  here. 
Please  be  nice  to  me  and  tell  me  all  your  secrets 
or  I  will  cut  off  your  supply  of  raw  material. ' ' 

It  was  such  an  assignment  as  this  that  one 
morning  came  over  to  New  York  in  the  mail 
from  Washington  and  fell  to  the  lot  of  Special 
Agent  Billy  Gard.  The  instructions  said: 

"The  Northern  Pulp  and  Paper  Manufac 
turers'  Association  will  hold  its  convention  at 
the  Waldorf  on  the  19th,  20th,  21st  and  22nd. 
It  is  suspected  of  being  a  conspiracy  in  restraint 
of  trade.  Its  deliberations  are  in  secret  and  the 
membership  is  unknown.  Ascertain  all  action 
of  the  convention  and  procure  a  list  of  the 
members  of  the  association." 

This  action  on  the  part  of  the  Government 
was  occasioned  by  complaints  from  publishers 
of  newspapers  throughout  the  country  which 
seemed  to  indicate  that  there  was  an  under 
standing  among  manufacturers  as  to  prices  that 
should  be  charged  for  white  paper.  If  there 
was  such  an  agreement  that  prevented  competi 
tion,  it  was  probably  reached  through  some 
association  of  which  all  were  members.  There 
was  the  Northern  Pulp  and  Paper  Manufac- 


234     UNCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

turers'  Association.  Its  deliberations  and  its 
membership  were  secret.  This  fact  pnt  it 
under  suspicion.  Was  it  fixing  prices'? 

To  answer  this  question,  Special  Agent  Billy 
Gard  went  on  his  vain-glorious  debauch  of 
assuming  an  importance  that  was  not  his  due. 
He  unleashed  that  tendency  that  is  within  us 
all  and  let  it  run  riot  to  the  limit.  But  back 
of  the  dissembling  there  was  an  object  to  be 
accomplished. 

"You  are  President  Van  Dorn  of  the  associa 
tion,  I  believe?"  said  Gard  as  he  presented 
himself  to  that  individual  on  the  morning  the 
convention  was  to  be  opened.  "My  name  is 
William  II.  Gard.  I  am  most  anxious  to  attend 
your  meetings. ' ' 

"Are  you  a  member?"  asked  the  president, 
an  incisive  and  businesslike  man  of  affairs 
whose  factories  produced  40  per  cent,  of  the 
white  paper  used  by  the  daily  press  of  the 
nation. 

"No,"  acknowledged  Gard,  "I  do  not  belong 
to  the  association,  but  I  nevertheless  believe 
that  the  membership  would  be  glad  to  have  me 
present." 

"If  you  are  a  manufacturer  you  may  become 


THE  MASTER  BLUFF         235 

a  member  and  attend,"  said  President  Van 
Dorn. 

"I  am  not  a  manufacturer,"  smiled  the  spe 
cial  agent.  "I  am  the  man  back  of  the  manu 
facturer.  I  come  to  you  to-day,  but  in  the  near 
future  you  will  all  come  to  me.  It  is  in  the 
interest  of  the  manufacturers  that  I  want  to 
attend." 

"I  do  not  understand,"  said  the  president. 

1  •  You  of  course  know  of  the  Canadian  North 
west  Timber  Company,"  said  the  special  agent. 
(As  a  matter  of  fact  there  was  no  company  of 
exactly  that  name.)  "I  am  the  representative 
of  that  company.  You  may  also  know  that  we 
have  been  accumulating  lands  covered  with 
spruce  timber  for  twenty  years.  Our  holdings 
now  amount  to  areas  equal  to  the  whole  of  the 
States  of  Maine,  New  Hampshire  and  Vermont. 
It  is  not  necessary  that  I  should  call  your  atten 
tion  to  the  exhaustion  of  the  spruce  of  New 
England,  nor  of  other  areas  in  the  United 
States  that  have,  in  the  past,  been  your  source 
of  supply  for  pulp  from  which  to  make  your 
paper.  The  timber  supply  heretofore  available 
for  this  purpose  is  approaching  exhaustion. 
When  it  is  gone  you  will  all  turn  to  the  forests 


236     UNCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

that  are  next  most  accessible.  We  have  those 
forests.  I  therefore  say  to  you  that  all  of  yon 
will  come  to  me  within  the  next  decade.  I  am 
coming  to  you  in  advance." 

As  the  young  man  who  claimed  to  be  from 
the  Canadian  Northwest  talked,  the  brusk  man 
ner  of  the  president  of  the  paper  manufac 
turers  gradually  relaxed.  He  stroked  his  luxu 
riant,  close-cropped  whiskers  in  each  direction 
from  the  distinct  part  down  his  chin  and  lis 
tened  with  undivided  attention.  The  Canadian 
timber  lands  were  at  that  time  the  matter  of 
greatest  interest  in  the  pulp  and  paper  world. 
These  lands  had  been  something  of  a  mystery, 
for  their  owners  were  evidently  sitting  tight 
and  biding  their  time. 

"I  had  depended  on  my  subject  to  interest 
you,"  said  Gard.  "I  came  all  the  way  from 
Canada  to  get  acquainted  with  the  men  who 
are  going  to  consume  my  product.  I  would 
like  to  attend  your  convention  and  address  it." 

Gard's  preparation  for  this  approach  and  bid 
for  a  seat  on  the  floor  of  the  convention,  had 
been  most  thorough.  Upon  receipt  of  his 
orders  he  had  found  himself  with  a  week  in 
which  to  make  ready.  His  first  step  had  been 


THE  MASTER  BLUFF         237 

to  get  in  touch  with  the  publisher  of  a  great 
New  York  daily  who  had  reported  to  the 
Department  his  belief  that  there  was  a  white 
paper  trust.  That  publisher  spent  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  dollars  every  year  for  paper.  He 
had  therefore  carefully  studied  the  paper  situa 
tion.  He  had  all  the  facts  as  to  the  supply  of 
pulp  timber.  He  knew  just  the  crisis  that  the 
paper  manufacturers  faced.  These  facts  he 
imparted  to  Gard  and  the  special  agent  saw, 
through  them,  his  opportunity  to  reach  the  con 
fidence  of  the  manufacturers  and  get  all  the 
facts  with  relation  to  their  organization. 

The  convention  was  yet  a  week  off.  Gard 
had  time  to  accumulate  a  sunburn  and  he  went 
fishing  down  the  bay  three  afternoons  in  suc 
cession,  wore  no  hat  and  rolled  up  his  sleeves. 
He  was  a  young  man  of  a  lobster  red  for  a 
day  or  two  but  of  a  deep  bronze  at  the  end  of 
the  week.  "With  a  touch  or  two  of  the  woods 
such  as  a  stout  pair  of  shoes  and  a  hunting  knife 
which  he  found  occasion  to  produce,  just  the 
right  impression  was  created. 

''There  is  nobody  that  the  convention  would 
rather  hear  talk,"  President  Van  Dorn  was 
saying.  "There  is  nobody  who  has  a  subject 


238     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

of  more  interest.  But  admission  to  the  conven 
tion  is  provided  for  in  the  constitution  and 
by-laws.  Only  members  may  be  admitted. 
Our  work  is  strictly  confidential." 

"However,  nothing  is  impossible,"  insisted 
Oard.  "A  constitution  can  be  amended." 

"The  manner  in  which  it  can  be  amended  is 
also  provided  for  in  the  by-laws.  It  cannot  be 
done  in  four  days." 

The  special  agent  saw  himself  bound  to  fail 
to  get  himself  admitted  to  the  convention. 
There  was  the  advantage,  however,  of  having 
been  denied  a  courtesy  to  which  he  had  a  strong 
claim  and  this  left  the  way  open  to  the  asking 
of  other  important  favors. 

"Even  though  you  cannot  attend  the  meet 
ings,"  Van  Dorn  suggested,  "I  want  to  see  that 
you  meet  all  our  leading  people  and  in  this  way 
you  may  accomplish  practically  as  much.  I 
would  be  glad  if  you  would  dine  with  me  to 
night." 

"I  shall  be  very  glad  to  do  so,"  said  the  spe 
cial  agent.  "In  the  meantime  you  can  prob 
ably  provide  me  with  a  list  of  your  members. 
In  that  way  I  can  at  least  communicate  with 
them  all." 


THE  MASTER  BLUFF         239 

"That  list  is  quite  confidential,"  said  the 
president.  "I  have  no  copy  of  it  myself." 

"But  your  permanent  headquarters  in 
Fourth  Avenue  will  have  it,"  suggested  Gard. 
"Can  you  give  me  a  note  to  the  secretary?" 

To  this  the  president  assented  somewhat 
hesitatingly.  The  note  he  wrote  was  also  a 
bit  indefinite.  It  was  not  instructions  to  give 
a  copy  of  the  list.  It  might  be  so  interpreted 
if  the  secretary  were  inclined  to  be  friendly. 

So  Gard  went  for  his  list  with  some  inward 
trepidation,  although  the  man  who  pretended 
to  hold  the  fate  of  the  paper  manufacturers 
of  a  nation  in  his  hand  could  afford  to  show  no 
outward  manifestation  of  it. 

The  secretary  of  the  Northern  Pulp  and 
Paper  Manufacturers'  Association  was  a  most 
courteous  young  Virginian  bearing  the  name  of 
Randolph.  The  special  agent  knew  the  secre 
tary  was  a  Southerner  as  soon  as  he  met  him. 
The  former  had  originated  in  Baltimore. 
After  the  manner  of  Southerners  the  two  dis 
cussed  names  and  families.  The  special  agent 
knew  a  great  deal  about  the  Randolph  family. 
In  fact,  he  said,  his  family  had  married  into 
the  Randolphs  in  one  of  its  branches.  The 


240     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

lines  were  followed  until  it  seemed  that  the 
men  might  well  believe  that  they  were  cousins 
several  times  removed.  Incidentally  they  had 
started  to  be  friends  in  the  way  most  accredited 
among  Southerners. 

Gard  delivered  his  note  from  President  Van 
Dorn  and  took  great  pains  to  explain  the  posi 
tion  of  the  Canadian  Northwest  Timber  Com 
pany.  He  made  it  clear  that  his  people  were 
on  the  eve  of  playing  a  large  part  in  the  paper 
pulp  world.  He  wanted  to  ask  Randolph's 
advice  about  certain  matters  and  he  wanted  to 
get  in  touch  with  some  enterprising  young  man 
who  knew  the  manufacturers.  To  such  a 
young  man  he  might  offer  an  enviable  business 
opportunity.  In  the  meantime  he  would  like 
a  copy  of  the  membership  list  of  the  associa 
tion. 

It  developed  that  there  was  but  one  such  list 
in  existence.  It  had  to  be  dug  up  from  the 
association's  safe  and  copied.  But  the  secre 
tary  was  friendly  to  this  one-time  Southerner, 
now  of  the  north  woods;  he  was  a  young  man 
who  knew  the  manufacturers,  and  who  would 
take  a  look  at  a  business  opportunity;  he  had 
the  note  of  instruction,  somewhat  indefinite  to 


THE  MASTER  BLUFF         241 

be  sure,  from  the  president  of  the  association. 

Gard  secured  his  list  of  members.  As  fast 
as  a  taxicab  could  carry  him,  he  was  away  to 
his  office,  from  which  requests  for  prices  of 
paper  were  dispatched  to  every  firm  on  the  list, 
in  the  name  of  the  New  York  publisher  who  was 
helping  the  Government. 

That  night  the  special  agent  dined  with  Presi 
dent  Van  Dorn  and  other  men  high  in  the  coun 
sels  of  the  Pulp  and  Paper  Manufacturers' 
Association.  His  position  was  explained  and 
regrets  were  generally  expressed  that  he  might 
not  be  present  at  the  meeting.  Only  the  con 
stitution  stood  in  the  way.  There  was  no  other 
reason  why  one  so  vitally  interested  in  the  wel 
fare  of  the  manufacturers  should  not  be  a  mem 
ber.  Information  of  a  most  exhaustive  nature 
should  be  given  him.  Even  the  minutes  of  the 
meeting  and  copies  of  addresses  should  be  put 
at  his  disposal.  He  should  meet  all  present. 

So  Agent  Gard  loafed  about  the  Waldorf  for 
four  days.  He  was  regarded,  not  merely  as  a 
master  of  finance  who  was  the  equal  of  any  of 
the  manufacturers  attending  the  convention, 
but  as  the  man  of  them  all  who  held  the  whip 
hand.  Morning  and  night  he  cultivated  these 


242     UNCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

men,  talked  business  with  them,  asked  them 
questions.  They  told  him  all  that  went  on  in 
the  convention,  allowed  him  to  read  its  minutes. 
He  was  the  most  courted  man  at  the  hotel  when 
the  word  got  well  circulated  that  he  was  the 
pulp  king  of  the  Canadian  Northwest 

Gard,  of  course,  had  an  average  number  of 
acquaintances  scattered  about  the  country  and 
many  of  these  knew  of  his  association  with  the 
Department  of  Justice.  In  a  New  York  hotel 
there  is  always  a  chance  of  meeting  friends 
from  any  place  in  the  world.  Gard  was  there 
fore  not  surprised,  on  the  evening  of  the  manu 
facturers'  banquet  which  brought  the  conven 
tion  to  a  close,  to  pass  in  a  corridor  two  old- 
time  friends,  men  whom  he  had  known  in  col 
lege.  They  hailed  him  vociferously  as  "Gard, 
old  man."  It  was  against  just  such  an  emer 
gency  that  he  had  used  his  own  name. 

The  special  agent  was  at  the  time  going  in 
to  dinner  with  Eandolph,  the  secretary,  and  a 
member  from  Buffalo.  Nothing  would  have 
come  of  this  chance  greeting  had  it  not  been 
that  a  paper  manufacturer  was  standing  beside 
the  two  friends  of  Gard  when  the  latter  passed. 


THE  MASTER  BLUFF         243 

One  of  these  young  men  turned  to  the  other  and 
asked: 

1  'What  is  G-ard  doing  now?  I  haven't  seen 
him  since  I  left  college." 

"He  is  with  the  Department  of  Justice,"  said 
the  second  friend.  "He  is  a  special  agent,  a 
detective  working  on  big  trust  investigations." 

And  the  manufacturer  heard  it  all.  He 
immediately  communicated  his  information  to 
President  Van  Dorn.  That  official  lost  his 
urbane  equanimity  and  fluttered  about  in  much 
confusion,  consulting  with  others  in  authority. 
He  did  not  approach  Gard,  and  that  young  man 
was  all  unsuspicious  that  anything  had  gone 
wrong  until  the  time  came  for  after-dinner 
speeches. 

"Before  we  proceed  with  the  toasts  on  the 
program,"  said  President  Van  Dorn,  who  was 
master  of  ceremonies,  "I  should  like  to  call  the 
attention  of  the  members  present  to  one  matter 
not  regularly  scheduled.  We  have  all  met,  dur 
ing  the  week,  Mr.  Gard,  of  the  Canadian  North 
west.  Mr.  Gard  has  furnished  many  of  us  with 
facts  that  seemed  to  be  vital  to  the  interests  of 
wood  pulp  business.  We,  in  exchange,  have 


244     UNCLE  SAM:     DETECTIVE 

given  to  Mr.  Gard  much  information  with  rela 
tion  to  the  pulp  and  paper  business.  I  should 
like  to  present  Mr.  Gard  to  this  gathering,  if  I 
may." 

President  Van  Dorn  paused  and  looked 
expectantly  in  the  direction  of  the  young  man 
in  question.  The  situation  was  such  that  Gard 
was  required  to  arise  and  receive  the  introduc 
tion  and,  as  he  expected,  make  a  bit  of  a  speech. 
He  rose  to  his  feet. 

"This,  gentlemen,"  continued  Van  Dorn,  "4s 
Mr.  Gard.  As  the  representative  of  the  Cana 
dian  Northwest  Timber  company  you  have 
unbosomed  yourselves  to  him.  He  is,  in 
reality,  a  detective  of  the  Department  of  Jus 
tice.  You,  gentlemen,  are  under  investigation. 
Will  Mr.  Gard  be  so  good  as  to  tell  us  whether 
or  not  we  are  a  trust  in  restraint  of  trade?" 

The  young  representative  of  Uncle  Sam  was 
taken  completely  by  surprise.  He  had  gone  so 
far  with  his  work  without  being  suspected  that 
he  had  thought  he  would  get  all  the  way 
through.  But  he  had  all  the  time  discounted 
the  possibility  of  being  found  out  and  was  there 
fore  entirely  prepared. 

"I  plead  guilty  as  charged,"  he  said,  bowing 


THE  MASTER  BLUFF         245 

profoundly  and  grinning  somewhat  sheepishly 
and  boyishly.  "You,  gentlemen,  have  been,  as 
we  say  in  sleuth  circles,  'roped.'  You  have  told 
your  secrets  to  the  investigator  unknowingly. 

"I  most  humbly  apologize  for  the  imposition. 
I  was  working  under  instructions.  Unless  it 
can  be  shown  that  your  association  is  in 
restraint  of  trade  nothing  will  come  of  the 
investigation.  If  you  are  a  conspiracy  you  will 
deserve  what  you  get. 

"If  I  may  be  pardoned  for  talking  shop  I 
will  tell  you  just  your  position  with  relation 
to  the  Government.  What  the  Department  of 
Justice  wants  to  do  with  such  people  as  you  is 
to  go  to  you  frankly  and  ask  you  to  lay  your 
cards  on  the  table — to  open  your  books  to  the 
examination  of  our  experts.  Before  this  is 
done  it  is  sometimes  wise  to  get  a  look  behind 
the  screens  before  the  stage  is  set  for  the  play. 
I  have  been  taking  that  peep. 

''Four  days  ago,  for  instance,  I  secured  a 
list  of  the  membership  of  this  association. 
That  night,  in  the  name  of  a  certain  newspaper 
publisher,  letters  were  written  to  every  mem 
ber  asking  for  quotations  of  prices.  The  price 
lists  are  in  the  mail  by  this  time  and  coming 


246     UXCLE  SAM:    DETECTIVE 

back  to  us.  Now,  if  there  is  a  great  similarity 
in  those  prices,  suspicion  will  be  aroused.  It 
is  better  that  this  and  other  tests  be  put  upon 
manufacturers  before  they  are  aware  that  an 
investigation  is  on. 

"But  now  we  are  in  the  open.  To-morrow  I 
will  call  upon  the  association  to  produce  its 
books.  It  need  not  respond  to  that  call,  but  if 
it  is  honest  there  is  no  reason  why  it  should 
not.  It  may  be  that  I  will  ask  individual  mem 
bers  to  show  their  accounts  and  correspond 
ence.  In  the  end  we  will  be  very  well 
acquainted.  I  trust  that  we  may  then  be  as 
friendly  as  we  have  been  during  your  conven 
tion  and  my  deception.  I  will  now  bid  you 
good-night. ' ' 

Gard's  work  "under  cover"  was  completed. 
It  was  but  an  incident  in  the  relations  between 
a  great  industry  and  the  Government.  The 
next  week  the  books  of  the  association  were 
thrown  open  to  the  Government.  President 
Van  Dorn,  whose  factory  was  the  largest  of 
them  all,  volunteered  access  to  his  records  and 
others  followed  suit.  So  was  an  era  of  fair 
dealing  inaugurated. 

This  all  happened  years  ago.    The  fidelity 


THE  MASTER  BLUFF         247 

with  which  the  special  agent  laid  the  basis  of 
his  deception  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  many  of 
these  manufacturers  are  now  getting  their  pulp 
from  the  Canadian  Northwest.  The  name  of 
Gard  does  not,  however,  appear  among  the  list 
of  officers  of  any  of  the  companies  supplying 
pulp.  The  young  man  is  probably  now  off  on 
the  trail  of  some  other  real  or  suspected  vio 
lator  of  the  Federal  statutes,  meeting  new 
emergencies,  gaining  new  experiences,  playing 
a  modest  but  not  unimportant  part  in  the  big 
and  vital  affairs  of  the  nation. 


THE   END 


A     000  761  237     7 


